haha...
Monday, October 17, 2005
Fall Break Trip - Day 1 (Ann Arbor - Traverse - Mackinaw City)
After more than an exhausting month of studying, I finally got what I deserved – a break! For this break, I went for a short but fun two day-one night trip to Traverse City and Mackinaw Island. Five of us (Mike, Pohyi, Jinye, Kaikiat and I) were in this trip.
The journey started early in the morning. It was still 5.15 am when I dragged myself out of my bed. Mike rented a car earlier, and he drove us around most of the time during the trip, with me taking over only when he was tired. As promised, Pohyi fixed us some sandwiches for us to eat on the road. So, cheerfully, (fortunately not studiously, as no one study stats 426 in the car ) we headed to our first destination – Traverse City.
It was a four-and-a-half-hour drive before we reached Traverse City. The scenery on our way was picturesque, as it was fall and the leaves of the trees had all turned to an orangey color. Upon reaching Traverse City, we went to the visitor’s information center before going to a farmer’s market. There was a variety of goods in the farmer’s market: pumpkins, apples, walnuts, flowers, honey, meat, and so on. I had never known that visiting a market can be that fun. The reason of my appreciating this visit was probably because the market somehow reminded me of the pasar in Malaysia.
We proceeded to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes after that. It was a national park where one can see desert out of nowhere. We went for a “hiking trip” up the dubbed (by me, because can’t find another way to describe it) cliff of sands and another scenic drive in the area. The stop at the 9th and 10th station of the scenic drive was particularly memorable, as wind gusting from the lake mercilessly rained us with sands when we tried to go to the lakeside. However, the “ordeal” proved to be worthwhile as the view there was simply breathtaking.
We went for a late lunch at a nearby town. After that, we went to a winery before heading for Mackinaw City, where we would spend a night there (too bad that I was underage and could not taste the wine there). In Mackinaw City, we explored the town a bit at night and took some pictures of the famous Mackinaw Bridge that connects Michigan mainland to the upper peninsular. Wearing just two sweatshirts, I was almost frozen to death at the lakeside…Called it a day after having dipper (dinner + supper, a word “created” by Jinye) in KFC.
The journey started early in the morning. It was still 5.15 am when I dragged myself out of my bed. Mike rented a car earlier, and he drove us around most of the time during the trip, with me taking over only when he was tired. As promised, Pohyi fixed us some sandwiches for us to eat on the road. So, cheerfully, (fortunately not studiously, as no one study stats 426 in the car ) we headed to our first destination – Traverse City.
It was a four-and-a-half-hour drive before we reached Traverse City. The scenery on our way was picturesque, as it was fall and the leaves of the trees had all turned to an orangey color. Upon reaching Traverse City, we went to the visitor’s information center before going to a farmer’s market. There was a variety of goods in the farmer’s market: pumpkins, apples, walnuts, flowers, honey, meat, and so on. I had never known that visiting a market can be that fun. The reason of my appreciating this visit was probably because the market somehow reminded me of the pasar in Malaysia.
We proceeded to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes after that. It was a national park where one can see desert out of nowhere. We went for a “hiking trip” up the dubbed (by me, because can’t find another way to describe it) cliff of sands and another scenic drive in the area. The stop at the 9th and 10th station of the scenic drive was particularly memorable, as wind gusting from the lake mercilessly rained us with sands when we tried to go to the lakeside. However, the “ordeal” proved to be worthwhile as the view there was simply breathtaking.
We went for a late lunch at a nearby town. After that, we went to a winery before heading for Mackinaw City, where we would spend a night there (too bad that I was underage and could not taste the wine there). In Mackinaw City, we explored the town a bit at night and took some pictures of the famous Mackinaw Bridge that connects Michigan mainland to the upper peninsular. Wearing just two sweatshirts, I was almost frozen to death at the lakeside…Called it a day after having dipper (dinner + supper, a word “created” by Jinye) in KFC.
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Bill Gates
Bill Gates came to my university this morning to give a talk on the future in computer science career. (Yes, it's him, the founder of Microsoft and the world richest person) Actually, more than a week prior to his arrival, the Michigan Daily had already announced his plans to visit Umich. Tickets could be obtained free from the Michigan Ticket Office, but to my dismal, they were all given away well before 9am (I reached the office at 12+pm). To console the disappointed students like me, they opened up an overflow hall so that we could watch the talk live via video.
Because the talk clashed with my GeoSci class, I decided to skip the lecture just to sit in the overflow hall and listen to Bill Gates. My skipping of class proved to be worthwhile as the talk was really interesting. Bill Gates was more humorous than what I had initially thought, and he even showed us a skit that he acted in. It was really hilarious as he did many stupid things in the video clip, including dancing!! (kinda like the solo free style dance) Difficult to imagine huh? He tried out a racing game too during the talk, which he sucked big time in.
Too bad I couldn’t get the main hall ticket. Photos of this event can be seen in Voon Seng’s blog (damn, that guy got the tickets!! Said his photo copyrighted wor…) under this linkhttp://voonseng.blogspot.com/2005/10/bill-gates-michigan.html
Because the talk clashed with my GeoSci class, I decided to skip the lecture just to sit in the overflow hall and listen to Bill Gates. My skipping of class proved to be worthwhile as the talk was really interesting. Bill Gates was more humorous than what I had initially thought, and he even showed us a skit that he acted in. It was really hilarious as he did many stupid things in the video clip, including dancing!! (kinda like the solo free style dance) Difficult to imagine huh? He tried out a racing game too during the talk, which he sucked big time in.
Too bad I couldn’t get the main hall ticket. Photos of this event can be seen in Voon Seng’s blog (damn, that guy got the tickets!! Said his photo copyrighted wor…) under this link
Monday, October 10, 2005
Opus Clavicembalisticum
Let's talk about classical music :)
In piano forums, the FAQ is: which is the most difficult piece ever written?
There are a few favorite answers, among them the famous (but infamously difficult) Rach 3 written by Rachmaninoff. But still, the Opus Clavicembalisticum is the generally accepted answer. Written by Sorabji, this monstrous composition is almost impossible to be performed. Not only it requries demanding techniques, it requires sheer determination and courage for a pianist to even attempt it(the length of the full performance of this piece is an astounding 4 hours+, and it varies with intepretations from different pianists). Only few pianists have managed to play this piece in its entirety, and even fewer recordings are exist.
To get an idea of how the piece look like, here is the music sheet ofOpus Clavicembalisticum
More info about the workOpus Clavicembalisticum
(p.s. gosh, why the heck am I blogging at this time? Tomorrow got GeoSci midterm!)
In piano forums, the FAQ is: which is the most difficult piece ever written?
There are a few favorite answers, among them the famous (but infamously difficult) Rach 3 written by Rachmaninoff. But still, the Opus Clavicembalisticum is the generally accepted answer. Written by Sorabji, this monstrous composition is almost impossible to be performed. Not only it requries demanding techniques, it requires sheer determination and courage for a pianist to even attempt it(the length of the full performance of this piece is an astounding 4 hours+, and it varies with intepretations from different pianists). Only few pianists have managed to play this piece in its entirety, and even fewer recordings are exist.
To get an idea of how the piece look like, here is the music sheet of
More info about the work
(p.s. gosh, why the heck am I blogging at this time? Tomorrow got GeoSci midterm!)
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!!
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!!
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Monday, September 05, 2005
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Life as a bookman
Ok, when i'm talking about selling books, what do i mean?
Selling books is nothing like setting up a book stall in the middle of a shopping mall, waiting people to come and buy your books. When i said i'm selling books, what i meant was selling books door-to-door. I worked like a salesman actually...(but we preferred to call ourselves "bookman")
The books we sold included:
a study bible, an illustrated bilbe in stories, a set of bible reference books (which includes a handbook, dictionary and concordance), a black history set, and a homework handbook set.
So, everyday, i drove 30-80 miles to my county (the distance varies, as i worked in 4 counties in 2 states). Once i had reached my county, i had to look for areas where the african americans stay. Yup, in this job, my main focus was on the african americans, or blacks (some ppl found this word offensive, but most don't). The main reason for my choosing of blacks as my customers was because they were generally more friendly and more religious. The whites were indubitably richer, but most of them, YES, MOST OF THEM (at least most of the whites i had met) were VERY DEFENSIVE, SNOBBISH, COLD and RUDE. (I don't blame them though, coz who would be friendly to a foreigner that knock on your door and try to enter your house??)
Once i reached the area, i would start knocking on doors. To make sure that we could enter the house to show our books, we were taught to do a "set-up" using our "salestalk" (which we were trained over and over again). The key was to make people to like you and trust you. Once they like you and trust you, most of them will let you show the books if they have the need. And whether they buy it or not depends on the closing skill, which i think i seriously lacked it...
Hence, i worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week (mon-fri). Sunday was my only off-day, but i had to attend a group meeting which normally took place in Cheasepeake, VA. We went to Raleigh, NC twice to have a combined meeting (which 3 organizations met). In such meetings, we called number (an activity which compared the sales of the students) and discussed ways to improve our sales. Of course, before each of the meetings, we had good lunch (either chinese buffet or Golden Coral).
This was my life as a bookman for three months...
Selling books is nothing like setting up a book stall in the middle of a shopping mall, waiting people to come and buy your books. When i said i'm selling books, what i meant was selling books door-to-door. I worked like a salesman actually...(but we preferred to call ourselves "bookman")
The books we sold included:
a study bible, an illustrated bilbe in stories, a set of bible reference books (which includes a handbook, dictionary and concordance), a black history set, and a homework handbook set.
So, everyday, i drove 30-80 miles to my county (the distance varies, as i worked in 4 counties in 2 states). Once i had reached my county, i had to look for areas where the african americans stay. Yup, in this job, my main focus was on the african americans, or blacks (some ppl found this word offensive, but most don't). The main reason for my choosing of blacks as my customers was because they were generally more friendly and more religious. The whites were indubitably richer, but most of them, YES, MOST OF THEM (at least most of the whites i had met) were VERY DEFENSIVE, SNOBBISH, COLD and RUDE. (I don't blame them though, coz who would be friendly to a foreigner that knock on your door and try to enter your house??)
Once i reached the area, i would start knocking on doors. To make sure that we could enter the house to show our books, we were taught to do a "set-up" using our "salestalk" (which we were trained over and over again). The key was to make people to like you and trust you. Once they like you and trust you, most of them will let you show the books if they have the need. And whether they buy it or not depends on the closing skill, which i think i seriously lacked it...
Hence, i worked 10 hours a day, 6 days a week (mon-fri). Sunday was my only off-day, but i had to attend a group meeting which normally took place in Cheasepeake, VA. We went to Raleigh, NC twice to have a combined meeting (which 3 organizations met). In such meetings, we called number (an activity which compared the sales of the students) and discussed ways to improve our sales. Of course, before each of the meetings, we had good lunch (either chinese buffet or Golden Coral).
This was my life as a bookman for three months...
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Pittsburgh - Roanoke Rapids
05/28/2005
We left Pittsburgh in the afternoon, and soon enough we found oursevles driving endlessly again on the highway. On our way to Roanoke Rapids, the hub cap of my car flew off. I did not know it until Renjie called me. Luckily, the hub cap was just the decoration part of the wheel.
We reached Roanoke Rapids at about 11.00 p.m. Upon reaching the single-storey duplex, a brick house which will be our "home" for the next three months, we were welcomed by Hon Boon and Sime. They had cooked us some chicken, which we gladly finished it. Little did we know that we were about to face the toughest chapter of our lives in no time...
We left Pittsburgh in the afternoon, and soon enough we found oursevles driving endlessly again on the highway. On our way to Roanoke Rapids, the hub cap of my car flew off. I did not know it until Renjie called me. Luckily, the hub cap was just the decoration part of the wheel.
We reached Roanoke Rapids at about 11.00 p.m. Upon reaching the single-storey duplex, a brick house which will be our "home" for the next three months, we were welcomed by Hon Boon and Sime. They had cooked us some chicken, which we gladly finished it. Little did we know that we were about to face the toughest chapter of our lives in no time...
Ann Arbor - Pittsburgh
05/27/2005
We (RenJie and I) left Ann Arbor for North Carolina on the 27th of May. My car was practically packed with all of my belongings (i left two boxes of academic stuff with voon seng. thx vs!) Before we left, we went to the plymouth Shell to do an oil change. To my dismay, the mechanic found out that my car needed some repair. There was something wrong with the axel thingy, and i was told that the wheel might fly off when i am driving. Knowing that the parts won't be available until the next day, i decided to take my chance. I had a feeling that the mechanic was exaggerating again. (coz remember that i once did a used car inspection here?)
The journey to Roanoke Rapids, a place 710 miles from Ann Arbor was pretty boring. It was estimated that we would need at least 11 hours to reach there (according to mapquest). Since i cannot listen to the radio or play any cd, i have to fight my sleepiness by chewing gum or singing. (the singing method was quite effective, it acted like some sort of shock treatment) We stopped a few times to refuel our cars, and when it was dark, we decided to find some place to park our cars and have a sleep. We stopped at a parking lot of a church near an exit of the interstate highway.
The very next day, we continued our journey after refreshing ourselves in a service station at the highway (i bought myself a hot chocolate). Since we would pass by Pittsburgh in our way, i figured it would be nice to visit my buddy, hong tuck, in the Carnagie Mellon University.
Probably due to the weather (cloudy and moody), i did not really like the atmosphere in Pittsburgh. The city was indescribably weird, somewhat possessed the aura that only a disgruntled old man will exude. Hong tuck still looked the same when we met him (haha). He brought us to the place he stayed, which was a room in his senior's dorm. After that, we walked around in the university and had lunch (chinese buffet) in the downtown. Other than CMU, there was another university in Pittsburgh - the University of Pittsburgh (of course).
(i will post the pictures later...)
We (RenJie and I) left Ann Arbor for North Carolina on the 27th of May. My car was practically packed with all of my belongings (i left two boxes of academic stuff with voon seng. thx vs!) Before we left, we went to the plymouth Shell to do an oil change. To my dismay, the mechanic found out that my car needed some repair. There was something wrong with the axel thingy, and i was told that the wheel might fly off when i am driving. Knowing that the parts won't be available until the next day, i decided to take my chance. I had a feeling that the mechanic was exaggerating again. (coz remember that i once did a used car inspection here?)
The journey to Roanoke Rapids, a place 710 miles from Ann Arbor was pretty boring. It was estimated that we would need at least 11 hours to reach there (according to mapquest). Since i cannot listen to the radio or play any cd, i have to fight my sleepiness by chewing gum or singing. (the singing method was quite effective, it acted like some sort of shock treatment) We stopped a few times to refuel our cars, and when it was dark, we decided to find some place to park our cars and have a sleep. We stopped at a parking lot of a church near an exit of the interstate highway.
The very next day, we continued our journey after refreshing ourselves in a service station at the highway (i bought myself a hot chocolate). Since we would pass by Pittsburgh in our way, i figured it would be nice to visit my buddy, hong tuck, in the Carnagie Mellon University.
Probably due to the weather (cloudy and moody), i did not really like the atmosphere in Pittsburgh. The city was indescribably weird, somewhat possessed the aura that only a disgruntled old man will exude. Hong tuck still looked the same when we met him (haha). He brought us to the place he stayed, which was a room in his senior's dorm. After that, we walked around in the university and had lunch (chinese buffet) in the downtown. Other than CMU, there was another university in Pittsburgh - the University of Pittsburgh (of course).
(i will post the pictures later...)
Mitsubishi Mirage 2001
Hahaha...long time since i last posted anything. Currently i'm still in Roanoke Rapids, North Carolina, but since i'm not doing anything now (i lent my car to Priscilla coz hers is in the bodyshop. a good excuse for not working right?), i'll try to tell what exactly i have been doing for my first summer in the states...
*this post is a continuation from my last post* &pardon me for my grammer..sigh~~&
So, after much trouble, i finally got myself a car (haha..don't really remember about the details...it happened about 3 months ago). It's a Mitsubishi Mirage 2001. I bought it from a dealer in Saginaw, MI, with 3100 usd cash, and i think it's a pretty good deal. The car is extremely good on gas. The only thing im not so happy about the car is that i can't use the cdplayer, because i don't have the access code for it (high-tech huh?) Of course, i can go to the nearest Mitsubishi dealer to retrieve the code, but doing that will cost my another fortune (about 68 usd). Hence i decided that i would be better off if i just sing and entertain myself in the car.
(i will post a pic of my car later)
*this post is a continuation from my last post* &pardon me for my grammer..sigh~~&
So, after much trouble, i finally got myself a car (haha..don't really remember about the details...it happened about 3 months ago). It's a Mitsubishi Mirage 2001. I bought it from a dealer in Saginaw, MI, with 3100 usd cash, and i think it's a pretty good deal. The car is extremely good on gas. The only thing im not so happy about the car is that i can't use the cdplayer, because i don't have the access code for it (high-tech huh?) Of course, i can go to the nearest Mitsubishi dealer to retrieve the code, but doing that will cost my another fortune (about 68 usd). Hence i decided that i would be better off if i just sing and entertain myself in the car.
(i will post a pic of my car later)
Sunday, May 15, 2005
Car...
ok. other than studying, i have gone to have a look at a car which i intended to buy.
about a month ago, i came across an ad featuring a second-hand car for sale. it's a maroon nissan sentra 1995, and the price was about 2600 usd. although i was quite interested in having a look at the car, the approaching finals and the lack of money (means i wouldn't be able to buy the car even if i like it) prevented me from doing so. and it was not until last week that i got the time to set up an appointment with the owner of the car to inspect the vehicle.
the appointment was at 9.00 am in the Willow Tree Apartments. qi ming drove me there, as he needed to get his car repaired somewhere near there too (a shell auto shop on plymouth rd). we managed to reach there in time, and to my surprise, the owner of the car appeared to be an indian (i thought i would be a chinese). he was a graduate student about to leave ann arbor.
the 4-door sedan was parked right outside of the apartment. it looked pretty new from outside (although this was not true. qi ming later told me that he saw some scratches on the door, and i later discovered myself that the front headlights was broken) . and again, to my surprise, the car was a manual car.
not convinced that i can actually drive a manual car, (huh?) he demonstrated to me how to drive it. after a short trip, i asked him to drive me to baits 1 so that i can test-drive it in the large open car-park there. after getting familiarized with the car, i drove it around (in the northwood area) and felt that it was quite a good car. pretty satisfied, i called the auto shop (the one which qi ming repair his car at) and set up an appointment for a car inspection. it was scheduled at around 11.30 am.
when the time came, i went to willowtree and drove the car to the auto shop. the owner looked quite worried, probably doubting my ability to handle the car (which i don't know why). i was quite sure i would buy the car if everything turned out fine. but about an hour later, my initial dream of owning a car was shattered. the reason was that the car needed some serious work before it could be used safely on the road:
two front axles 420
frond and rear pads + rotors 440
all belts 120
front crank seal 175
tune up 59
clutch 450
a/c compressor 600
(all the figures are in USD)
....man, 2400 USD for such a car?? luckily i did an used-car inspection (which cost me 45 bucks)...of course, i can't rule out the possibility that the mechanics there were exaggerating. yet, the repair costs were too high for me, and i would not want to take the risk of buying a car which will financially burden me too much (because the insurance will cost a lot too. a 3-month full coverage is about 600 usd).
hence, i gave up the idea of buying that particular car. (though he offered 1900 usd later, which was still quite high as i have asked the mechanics how much the car would cost. they said 1500.)
about a month ago, i came across an ad featuring a second-hand car for sale. it's a maroon nissan sentra 1995, and the price was about 2600 usd. although i was quite interested in having a look at the car, the approaching finals and the lack of money (means i wouldn't be able to buy the car even if i like it) prevented me from doing so. and it was not until last week that i got the time to set up an appointment with the owner of the car to inspect the vehicle.
the appointment was at 9.00 am in the Willow Tree Apartments. qi ming drove me there, as he needed to get his car repaired somewhere near there too (a shell auto shop on plymouth rd). we managed to reach there in time, and to my surprise, the owner of the car appeared to be an indian (i thought i would be a chinese). he was a graduate student about to leave ann arbor.
the 4-door sedan was parked right outside of the apartment. it looked pretty new from outside (although this was not true. qi ming later told me that he saw some scratches on the door, and i later discovered myself that the front headlights was broken) . and again, to my surprise, the car was a manual car.
not convinced that i can actually drive a manual car, (huh?) he demonstrated to me how to drive it. after a short trip, i asked him to drive me to baits 1 so that i can test-drive it in the large open car-park there. after getting familiarized with the car, i drove it around (in the northwood area) and felt that it was quite a good car. pretty satisfied, i called the auto shop (the one which qi ming repair his car at) and set up an appointment for a car inspection. it was scheduled at around 11.30 am.
when the time came, i went to willowtree and drove the car to the auto shop. the owner looked quite worried, probably doubting my ability to handle the car (which i don't know why). i was quite sure i would buy the car if everything turned out fine. but about an hour later, my initial dream of owning a car was shattered. the reason was that the car needed some serious work before it could be used safely on the road:
two front axles 420
frond and rear pads + rotors 440
all belts 120
front crank seal 175
tune up 59
clutch 450
a/c compressor 600
(all the figures are in USD)
....man, 2400 USD for such a car?? luckily i did an used-car inspection (which cost me 45 bucks)...of course, i can't rule out the possibility that the mechanics there were exaggerating. yet, the repair costs were too high for me, and i would not want to take the risk of buying a car which will financially burden me too much (because the insurance will cost a lot too. a 3-month full coverage is about 600 usd).
hence, i gave up the idea of buying that particular car. (though he offered 1900 usd later, which was still quite high as i have asked the mechanics how much the car would cost. they said 1500.)
Study week...
hmm. where did i stop? ok...here i will give a brief (probably will end up not so short) summary of stuff i have done in this week...
basically the whole week is about study, study and study...preparing myself for my first actuarial professional paper. why do i need to study that hard?? there are a few factors:
a) this exam is yet the most important one in my neverending studying life.
b) only 30% of the candidates can pass this paper.
c) people do not take this exam just because it is fun. they spend 100+ USD for it, thus meaning that they will take it seriously. very seriously. and this is not a good news at all.
d) i did outlandishly bad in my intro to probability class, and this seems pretty much like a precursor to my failing this paper.
hence, despite the odds of me passing the paper, i spend a great portion of my daily time immersing myself in the confusing world of probability, striving hard to understand theories which attempt to systematically explain the chaotic world of randomness. knowing that i have little, or should i say virtually no interest in this field frustrates me the most. how im i going to live my future life dealing with all of these abominable excrement with a stench i abhore so much? (haha, pardon me for my wording. venting my frustration here)
mind over body man. your brain is a powerful tool. these are what i have been using to hypnotize myself. i am currently trying to make myself believe that i love math. actually the fact is, i used to. hmm. maybe the passion is still out there, somewhere in my mind, hiding mischieviously (which i don't find it amusing) in between my greyish folded cerebral mass. all i need to do is to dig the damn passion out. then life will be so much better...
where thou art?? my passion to math??
basically the whole week is about study, study and study...preparing myself for my first actuarial professional paper. why do i need to study that hard?? there are a few factors:
a) this exam is yet the most important one in my neverending studying life.
b) only 30% of the candidates can pass this paper.
c) people do not take this exam just because it is fun. they spend 100+ USD for it, thus meaning that they will take it seriously. very seriously. and this is not a good news at all.
d) i did outlandishly bad in my intro to probability class, and this seems pretty much like a precursor to my failing this paper.
hence, despite the odds of me passing the paper, i spend a great portion of my daily time immersing myself in the confusing world of probability, striving hard to understand theories which attempt to systematically explain the chaotic world of randomness. knowing that i have little, or should i say virtually no interest in this field frustrates me the most. how im i going to live my future life dealing with all of these abominable excrement with a stench i abhore so much? (haha, pardon me for my wording. venting my frustration here)
mind over body man. your brain is a powerful tool. these are what i have been using to hypnotize myself. i am currently trying to make myself believe that i love math. actually the fact is, i used to. hmm. maybe the passion is still out there, somewhere in my mind, hiding mischieviously (which i don't find it amusing) in between my greyish folded cerebral mass. all i need to do is to dig the damn passion out. then life will be so much better...
where thou art?? my passion to math??
Saturday, May 07, 2005
Angels and Demons
just finished reading my second dan brown's book - angels and demons. really intereting...now looking foward to read the next book, the most famous of his work to this date - da vinci's code...
i found the ambigrams in the book particularly interesting. An ambigram, to those who doesn't know what it is, is a word written in such a way that it is legible both rightside-up and upside-down. Ambigrams are an ancient artform and play heavily into the mysteries of Angels & Demons.
here's an example of an ambigram...(the title of the book) it's legible upside down!!! don't believe? have a look!!
i found the ambigrams in the book particularly interesting. An ambigram, to those who doesn't know what it is, is a word written in such a way that it is legible both rightside-up and upside-down. Ambigrams are an ancient artform and play heavily into the mysteries of Angels & Demons.
here's an example of an ambigram...(the title of the book) it's legible upside down!!! don't believe? have a look!!
Friday, May 06, 2005
Thursday, May 05, 2005
Driving test
as usual, today, i woke up at around 9, had my breakfast and then went to work in the library. nothing much interesting happened...for lunch, since there was some overnight rice, i decided to try out the "golden fried rice" which i learnt in malaysia by watching a drama by wong hei (so much to learn from tv :P). the way of preparing this fried rice is to first extract the egg york from the eggs, beat them evenly and then pour the golden liquid on the rice. after that, it is crucial to make sure that every single grain of rice is coated in the egg york, thus making the rice looked yellow (hence the name "golden"). then, it is to be fried with onions, garlic and chicken. today, this dish turned out to be a little bit dull without carrots and other stuff, but edible nonetheless.
i was scheduled to take a road test at 6.30 pm in ypsilanti today. as a practice, i drove qi ming's car all the way from ann arbor to ypsilanti, and there, renjie took over and drove for a few rounds. then, we went to a carpark to practise some parking. time progessed inexorably, and the dreaded moment arrived very soon. too soon indeed.
we let hon boon drove us to the carpark (where the parking test would be hold). there, we submitted the paperwork, and after filling out the forms for a while, the examiner signalled me (since i was the first one) to start.
first, i had to check whether the vehicle was safe to use. there was nothing tough in this part, and then i was instructed to drive to a line. very good so far (although i was asked repeatedly to drive nearer to the line because probably my car was too far away from the line). the second part became a little bit more challenging when i was asked to do a reverse parking. still okay here. here it comes. the side parking. combined with my lack of skills and spatial judgement, my nervousness had me fail this part...everyone is allowed to accumulate 6 points (the more the worse) in this part, and i got 7. (hey, now that i don't want any extra points, i was given one!!!) hahaha....no one to blame though...my fault. very depressing indeed...(since each test costs 45 usd).
nevermind though. this saturday, i am going to retake the test, and hopefully i will pass it!! kengyang, gambate!!!!!
i was scheduled to take a road test at 6.30 pm in ypsilanti today. as a practice, i drove qi ming's car all the way from ann arbor to ypsilanti, and there, renjie took over and drove for a few rounds. then, we went to a carpark to practise some parking. time progessed inexorably, and the dreaded moment arrived very soon. too soon indeed.
we let hon boon drove us to the carpark (where the parking test would be hold). there, we submitted the paperwork, and after filling out the forms for a while, the examiner signalled me (since i was the first one) to start.
first, i had to check whether the vehicle was safe to use. there was nothing tough in this part, and then i was instructed to drive to a line. very good so far (although i was asked repeatedly to drive nearer to the line because probably my car was too far away from the line). the second part became a little bit more challenging when i was asked to do a reverse parking. still okay here. here it comes. the side parking. combined with my lack of skills and spatial judgement, my nervousness had me fail this part...everyone is allowed to accumulate 6 points (the more the worse) in this part, and i got 7. (hey, now that i don't want any extra points, i was given one!!!) hahaha....no one to blame though...my fault. very depressing indeed...(since each test costs 45 usd).
nevermind though. this saturday, i am going to retake the test, and hopefully i will pass it!! kengyang, gambate!!!!!
Wednesday, May 04, 2005
Monday, May 02, 2005
Sunday, May 01, 2005
First day cooking...
although dorm food was nowhere near tasty, i miss it so much now. without the 18 meal credits which ensures me a steady supply of nutritious food, now i have to constantly worry about what to eat next. yesterday afternoon, i grabbed some lousy chinese food (fried rice which tasted sweet) in the michigan union, and we had our dinner in northwood community centre. the food there was simply delectable!!! because it's a malaysian occasion (malaysian graduate dinner), we had nasi lemak, rendang, mi kari and some kuih muih. almost stuffed myself to death....hahaha.
and today, we have to cook ourselves....in the morning, we went down north campus to help out qunfeng to move his stuff...after that, we had our lunch in a mcd near the asia market, where we shopped there later for groceries. we bought cooking oil, rice, meat, eggs, etc...stuff which we will miraculously turn to edible food in the following days.
so, upon returning to our place, we rested for a while, then started to do the preparation for dinner. voon seng was there helping us out, and since it was the first dinner, we figured it's a good idea to invite more people. eric and qunfeng would be joining us too. after about 2 hours of work in the kitchen and with the guidance of some internet recipe, this is what we got...(refer to the photos attached)
it's tasty. im not kidding.(i believe you can feel it from just looking at the picture). i personally enjoyed it very much. and because the result was so incredibly good, we came up with a plan...we will share among the 5 people for the following dinner (means from today onwards, 5 ppl will be eating in our place). so dinner problem solved!
and today, we have to cook ourselves....in the morning, we went down north campus to help out qunfeng to move his stuff...after that, we had our lunch in a mcd near the asia market, where we shopped there later for groceries. we bought cooking oil, rice, meat, eggs, etc...stuff which we will miraculously turn to edible food in the following days.
so, upon returning to our place, we rested for a while, then started to do the preparation for dinner. voon seng was there helping us out, and since it was the first dinner, we figured it's a good idea to invite more people. eric and qunfeng would be joining us too. after about 2 hours of work in the kitchen and with the guidance of some internet recipe, this is what we got...(refer to the photos attached)
it's tasty. im not kidding.(i believe you can feel it from just looking at the picture). i personally enjoyed it very much. and because the result was so incredibly good, we came up with a plan...we will share among the 5 people for the following dinner (means from today onwards, 5 ppl will be eating in our place). so dinner problem solved!
Friday, April 29, 2005
Moving stuff day
the semester ends abruptly when i came out from lorch hall after taking my last exam. looking back the days of the winter term, it was as if the only thing i have ever done during this period is study, study and study...so pathetic. and even so, i can't imagine what my results will look like...
it was supposed to be fun considering all the academic pressures have been removed. yet, there are still a lot of things to come. to name a few, the impending chaos upon moving out, the still cloudy prospects of getting the jpa full allowance (crucial for my getting a car), a writing test and a road test to be taken, and the ultimate concern of my which dwarfs all the previous events...my SOA first exam...(which will be held on the 25th of May). so there goes my supposingly carefree and relaxing post-exam period. more tension and cruel realities are awaiting me in a not so distant future...
so, as for a poor freshman like me, (who has no car, and not of a gender which has assets to get assistance from the opposite), moving out to a new place is almost an ordeal. first of all, i have to pack all my stuff into boxes, and that itself had already given me enough headache. then, i have to get transportation to move my stuff from north to central campus. i am truly grateful that a senior of mine (wei heong is his name, a sohpmore) was kind enough to let us share some space and time of the truck he rent (with eric driving it).
we (renjie and i) started moving out our stuff at 1pm. i had a total of 16 boxes (not all of them in the same size, in fact most of them were quite small), 2 luggages, and a fridge. with the assistance of qunfeng, we managed to finish it in quite a short while. after moving our stuff, we proceeded to help ivy moving hers. we loaded all our belongings on the truck, and set out without any delay. we went to ivy's house first, then to mine and renjie's. oh yeah, i forgot to mention about my new place. it's on the third floor of a house, an attic like place. the ceilings are low, but it has 2 bedrooms. the apartment is quite cool as there's a window which you can crawl through it to the roof, which is connected to downstairs by a series and flights of stairs. (i will show it in pic later) upon moving all our stuff to the living room, we paid the owner (a sweet looking but typical american girl in her junior year) 210 dollars by check (my first check!! 200 for rent, 10 for utilities)
after settling all the things, we went back to baits 1 to stay for another night. we visited wei heong's room on our way back. got to know a lot about couzen hall. informative trip i would say...haha.
it was supposed to be fun considering all the academic pressures have been removed. yet, there are still a lot of things to come. to name a few, the impending chaos upon moving out, the still cloudy prospects of getting the jpa full allowance (crucial for my getting a car), a writing test and a road test to be taken, and the ultimate concern of my which dwarfs all the previous events...my SOA first exam...(which will be held on the 25th of May). so there goes my supposingly carefree and relaxing post-exam period. more tension and cruel realities are awaiting me in a not so distant future...
so, as for a poor freshman like me, (who has no car, and not of a gender which has assets to get assistance from the opposite), moving out to a new place is almost an ordeal. first of all, i have to pack all my stuff into boxes, and that itself had already given me enough headache. then, i have to get transportation to move my stuff from north to central campus. i am truly grateful that a senior of mine (wei heong is his name, a sohpmore) was kind enough to let us share some space and time of the truck he rent (with eric driving it).
we (renjie and i) started moving out our stuff at 1pm. i had a total of 16 boxes (not all of them in the same size, in fact most of them were quite small), 2 luggages, and a fridge. with the assistance of qunfeng, we managed to finish it in quite a short while. after moving our stuff, we proceeded to help ivy moving hers. we loaded all our belongings on the truck, and set out without any delay. we went to ivy's house first, then to mine and renjie's. oh yeah, i forgot to mention about my new place. it's on the third floor of a house, an attic like place. the ceilings are low, but it has 2 bedrooms. the apartment is quite cool as there's a window which you can crawl through it to the roof, which is connected to downstairs by a series and flights of stairs. (i will show it in pic later) upon moving all our stuff to the living room, we paid the owner (a sweet looking but typical american girl in her junior year) 210 dollars by check (my first check!! 200 for rent, 10 for utilities)
after settling all the things, we went back to baits 1 to stay for another night. we visited wei heong's room on our way back. got to know a lot about couzen hall. informative trip i would say...haha.
Saturday, April 23, 2005
snow in april??!?!?
it's april. end of april. spring equinox has long past. every single sign seemed to show that winter was officially dead. yet, today, the temperature took a sharp turn down, and it snows again...YES, IT SNOWS AGAIN, IN THIS END OF APRIL. man, this is insane. the accumalation reaches about half a foot i think. totally incomprehensible indeed.
so, again, we have to put on our inch-thick winter jacket on...and the funny thing is, some of my friends have already nicely packed their winter gears in their bags...hahaha. but despite having enough of this stupid weather, i took my camera out when i was goin out for lunch, hoping to freeze the last moments of winter in frames. actually, it was quite fun....we pull the low-reaching branches of trees so that the snow accumulated on them rain down on us...stupid but fun!! haha....
so, again, we have to put on our inch-thick winter jacket on...and the funny thing is, some of my friends have already nicely packed their winter gears in their bags...hahaha. but despite having enough of this stupid weather, i took my camera out when i was goin out for lunch, hoping to freeze the last moments of winter in frames. actually, it was quite fun....we pull the low-reaching branches of trees so that the snow accumulated on them rain down on us...stupid but fun!! haha....
Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Geosci field trip day
after the seemingly endless months of snow.....finally spring comes!! today the weather is just fine. highs 20-24. it started to feel like malaysia already...but heck, who cares? now i like the warmth (actually hotness) so much. for the past 2 weeks i had already cycled twice to the central campus. (to me it's a feat because of the distance and the damnable slopes. now i know why there are such slopes around UM..tell you guys later in the post).
as for today, i went to class as usual. 9-12, 3 classes back to back. after that headed to east quad for lunch (they serve 5 types of desserts today :) ). 1.00pm got one appointment with the econs advisor. didn't help much. went to CCLittle building to meet for geosci discussion.
for today's discussion, we had a field trip around ann arbor to examine the glacier features left by a continental ice sheet that covered michigan around 15000 (hmm..if im not mistaken) years ago. finally knew that the central campus was built on the outwash plain, in between two morraines on the east and west side respectively. now you know about the slopes. (they are still so damnable, regardless of what). not much fun from the trip though.
after coming back from class, i played frisbee at the thieme field (fully utilizing the excellent weather) with 5 of my friends. (eric, renjie, voonseng, putt, chiachye) had a good time there.
now it's 11.34 pm. got a linear algebra hw due on friday, but seriously have no mood to study...what has happened to me??!?!?! maybe i should just sleep...hahaha. i need some motivation. (but wasn't my sucky 425 marks big enough a motivation for me??!?!)
good night world.
as for today, i went to class as usual. 9-12, 3 classes back to back. after that headed to east quad for lunch (they serve 5 types of desserts today :) ). 1.00pm got one appointment with the econs advisor. didn't help much. went to CCLittle building to meet for geosci discussion.
for today's discussion, we had a field trip around ann arbor to examine the glacier features left by a continental ice sheet that covered michigan around 15000 (hmm..if im not mistaken) years ago. finally knew that the central campus was built on the outwash plain, in between two morraines on the east and west side respectively. now you know about the slopes. (they are still so damnable, regardless of what). not much fun from the trip though.
after coming back from class, i played frisbee at the thieme field (fully utilizing the excellent weather) with 5 of my friends. (eric, renjie, voonseng, putt, chiachye) had a good time there.
now it's 11.34 pm. got a linear algebra hw due on friday, but seriously have no mood to study...what has happened to me??!?!?! maybe i should just sleep...hahaha. i need some motivation. (but wasn't my sucky 425 marks big enough a motivation for me??!?!)
good night world.
Saturday, April 02, 2005
DP (Detroit Project) Day!!!
a few weeks ago, i had signed up to do voluntary work on a day called the detroit project day. until a day before the day had i received the letter of assignment. all i knew was that i would be assigned to a site named v3, but little did i know what would i do....
so here comes the day. we were supposed to meet in angell hall at 8.45 am. i woke up at 8, and after much of delay, i found myself missing the damned bus (again!). as a result, me and renjie had to run down to pierpont commons, hoping that we would be able to catch the missed bus. we were disappointed, and had to wait for another bus...but when we reached central campus, we noticed there were swarms of people coming from all sides of direction, heading towards the building. apparently...michigan time still applied. after standing in a line for a while, we were notified that we did not need to wait...we could just grab our t-shirts and go our bus. i got a medium size blue t-shirt, put it on, and yup, ready to start the exciting day.
as i was in group v3, renjie and i seperated as we went to search for our bus. after much trouble, i finally found my bus. upon aboarding it, i had to sign a paper (must be like some live-dead contract..haha), and was given a named tag. as there was already quite a number of people in the bus, i had to sit quite far back. after some moment of silence, conversations were started in the bus, and me too was able to engage in a small chat with an arizona girl (shawn, graduate student).
the bus left ann arbor quite late (9.30am) and we reached detroit (actually the place we went is not the city, i think it's a suburb of detroit). as our bus had members not only from v3, we splited into groups. earlier in the bus, i had known that my work would be related to setting up a library for a middle school. so there we went to a building (owned by blight what what, a charity-voluntary-work group) and gathered in a soup kitchen hall. as an ice-breaker, we played the link, and after hanging out for a short while, we were told that the truck with our books had arrived.
unloading the books was nothing a task, and upon receiving the books, we had to first divide them into fiction, non-fiction, and inappropriate books. then we had to label them. that was when i thought, oh gosh, books again!!!! (fyi, im a librarian) we worked in groups of 3, and we chatted while working. (some other groups play some naming game, say name a city starting with alphabet a-z)
lunch sucked. i just had a turkey sandwich and some pop. people from other groups came join for lunch too. there was a big crowd in the hall...and after that, it was in such a mess that we had to clean it up. cynthia, one of my senior was there too. cool and remote as usual (i mean to the juniors).
we continued our work after the cleaning up. then when it was around 2, we stopped. hopping in the same bus, we headed to a park and there, all the volunteers gathered together to hear speeches from 3 speakers (ended up having more than that). one of them, a black, was rather cool as he rap through his speech. (seriously) there too they gave out free t-shirts by throwing them out to the crowd. i manage to grab one :D, as my arms were fast and long enough..muahaha. it was quite a cold day, and we were quite impatient waiting for the speakers to finish their speeches (one of them was late...the senator)
the event was wrapped up with the speech of the lady senator, and we walked our way back to the buses. nothing much in the journey back, except i accidentally stepped on a pile of shit (shit!!!)
so here comes the day. we were supposed to meet in angell hall at 8.45 am. i woke up at 8, and after much of delay, i found myself missing the damned bus (again!). as a result, me and renjie had to run down to pierpont commons, hoping that we would be able to catch the missed bus. we were disappointed, and had to wait for another bus...but when we reached central campus, we noticed there were swarms of people coming from all sides of direction, heading towards the building. apparently...michigan time still applied. after standing in a line for a while, we were notified that we did not need to wait...we could just grab our t-shirts and go our bus. i got a medium size blue t-shirt, put it on, and yup, ready to start the exciting day.
as i was in group v3, renjie and i seperated as we went to search for our bus. after much trouble, i finally found my bus. upon aboarding it, i had to sign a paper (must be like some live-dead contract..haha), and was given a named tag. as there was already quite a number of people in the bus, i had to sit quite far back. after some moment of silence, conversations were started in the bus, and me too was able to engage in a small chat with an arizona girl (shawn, graduate student).
the bus left ann arbor quite late (9.30am) and we reached detroit (actually the place we went is not the city, i think it's a suburb of detroit). as our bus had members not only from v3, we splited into groups. earlier in the bus, i had known that my work would be related to setting up a library for a middle school. so there we went to a building (owned by blight what what, a charity-voluntary-work group) and gathered in a soup kitchen hall. as an ice-breaker, we played the link, and after hanging out for a short while, we were told that the truck with our books had arrived.
unloading the books was nothing a task, and upon receiving the books, we had to first divide them into fiction, non-fiction, and inappropriate books. then we had to label them. that was when i thought, oh gosh, books again!!!! (fyi, im a librarian) we worked in groups of 3, and we chatted while working. (some other groups play some naming game, say name a city starting with alphabet a-z)
lunch sucked. i just had a turkey sandwich and some pop. people from other groups came join for lunch too. there was a big crowd in the hall...and after that, it was in such a mess that we had to clean it up. cynthia, one of my senior was there too. cool and remote as usual (i mean to the juniors).
we continued our work after the cleaning up. then when it was around 2, we stopped. hopping in the same bus, we headed to a park and there, all the volunteers gathered together to hear speeches from 3 speakers (ended up having more than that). one of them, a black, was rather cool as he rap through his speech. (seriously) there too they gave out free t-shirts by throwing them out to the crowd. i manage to grab one :D, as my arms were fast and long enough..muahaha. it was quite a cold day, and we were quite impatient waiting for the speakers to finish their speeches (one of them was late...the senator)
the event was wrapped up with the speech of the lady senator, and we walked our way back to the buses. nothing much in the journey back, except i accidentally stepped on a pile of shit (shit!!!)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
