It's scary how normal living here has become. I feel the onset of the same quiet, downwards static-ness that I was afraid of and ran away from at MIT.

Playing Chardes

in high school, Georgia, USA
ex:=
The Man with the Golden Gun
Britney Spears
Titanic
Star Wars
Mickey Mouse

at University of Cambridge, England
ex:=
Ecclesiastes
A Tale of Two Cities
Much Ado About Nothing
Wuthering Heights
To Kill a Mockingbird
Tess of the D'urbervilles

Becoming a Cambridge student

Gonville & Caius College freshman Matriculation photo, all of one hundred eighty-something odd of us standing around the green court at 9:30am, half-hungover and chilly yet chatty and proudly wearing our blue college gowns.
multiples roll calls and assembly into alphabetical lines for the photo shoot
being able to walk on the grass for a few seconds!
To think, I will be forever captured in this matriculation photo as a true Caius freshman
Sitting in the dining hall at the front of the table, being welcomed by the Caius Master and Fellows formally into Gonville & Caius College and hearing their hearty congratulations, taking the ink pen and officially signing my name onto both the college and university matriculation forms... I look up at the enormous hall ceilings colored by stained glass lights with a sense of immense awe

Our first formal hall dinner, for freshman only, the Caius-definition of a three-course meal with our college gowns
walking in and realizing Stephen Hawking is attending our formal hall, a way of welcome into his college.
someone whispers Stephen Hawking and the name quickly passes down the long hall table from person to person and every head turns to look at the high table in wide-eyed wonderment
me craning my neck to try to figure out what his laptop is running on his wheelchair, some green text that was constantly changing against a black background, but I was too far away to make out anything
all wondering if he was going to say a few electronically created words but he never did

going punting again, this time a seasoned veteren, and with great weather
looking through the various university and college society fairs
meeting and finding freshmen to hang out with, finally feeling more integrated with my college and dorm
joining the Caius Army pub crawl, night before lectures begin :)

lectures are all about managing to find a not-crappy place to sit and scribbling down what the professor is saying and writing at the same time as fast and much as possible
then spending the rest of the afternoon going over each word and sentence to decipher it all
finally understanding that people actually use the library to do work, study, and read textbooks, wow

realizing that I am now a Cambridge student, and time will pass by before I know it

This is England.

I feel like I'm walking around in a quaint 18th century movie, ridiculously out of place.
I love the adorably nice old porters dressed in black suits and black trench coats who know everything under the sun and moon.
Punting along the River Cam and not falling into the water
Sundry of shops and trinkets along windy cobblestone roads
Gorgeous gorgeous green grass that only college Fellows may walk on
You can see stars. stars stars stars bright against the darkness, framed by the top of trees in my field of vision when I walk home alone the road with my face looking up.
Dancing to cheese reminds me of Singapore's Zouk Mambo Jambo.
Horrible, antiquated internet and network connectivity
Such an adventure to find edible cheap food everyday.
British girls and their old school fashion.
I like girls who appreciate good beer.
Unconsciously mimicking a British accent when talking too long to Brits
Not unpacking my room yet.
Freezingly drizzly cold cold yet bright and clear English sky
breathtaking architecture that we call home







>> Rest of Facebook album

Livin' it up in Malaysia

August 1-3 Singapore to Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur, Batu Caves, Malacca, Muar

Since Malaysia was so close right across the border, figured we should take a weekend to drive up and look around the country. We had taken a train and local buses through Malaysia to get to Tioman Is. earlier in the month so we already sight-saw the Malaysian countrysides, but we didn't know what city life in Malaysia was like. The place to go: the capital city of course, Kuala Lumpur! (the name always reminds me of a lumpy koala bear)

The Petronas Towers in KL are the tallest twin buildings in the world, and used to be the tallest building before Taipei 101. Tickets to go up to the observatory tower sell out for the day at like 8am, so we paid a tour agency to stand in line for us >.< We drove to Batu Caves the next day, amazing gigantic limestone formations and the largest gold statue in the world (something like that). The climb from the bottom to top of caves was ~272 steps, gah hot hot sun! Lots and lots of monkeys running around - ick I've heard bad stories of wild monkeys assaulting humans and stealing food o.O packs of chattering monkeys are scary scary! >.<



Then we drove to Malacca, which is a quaint historic town famous for its old British settlements and churches. It has a great long street full of small shops and street vendors, at night it transforms into a even more lively nightmarket. We just spent hours walking along, stuffing ourselves full of everything and anything that catches our eye, and browsing cute little trinkets and such. I don't remember, I bought lots of random cute stuff that I don't know what I'm going to use for when if ever. Plus along the way home back to Singapore we stopped by a rambutan planatation, oh my.




A few more pictures >> Facebook album

:)

Summer nights of mayhem [Phuket, Thailand]

Aug 25-28 Singapore to Phuket, Thailand

Episode of the 500 baht
We were eating nearby our hotel after we arrived in the afternoon and Gerald used the restaurant phone to make a local call for a minute to reach his friend, then at end of meal the store woman demanded that he pay 500 bahts. We're like wtf, what for the waitress said we could use the phone. She said she had no way of ascertaining what number he called and if it were international or not, so we have to pay 500 bahts... then she called the cops when we all started arguing with her. Omg the Thai police, grrrrr. They all took her side even tho it was pretty obvious this was a stupid scam. One police officer asked to see Gerald's passport, and then he took it! he said he was going to have to confiscate it for 30 days until the issue is cleared up. omfg we were all so unbelievably mad, it had been like two hours. Once he got Gerald's passport, there wasn't anything much we could do but pay for it back and leave. Arpun is pretty sure the store woman split the money with the policemen because they were hanging out at a store next door waiting for us to leave. grrrrrr wtfking hell. pretty pissed off, so much for our arrival in Thailand.

P.S. did I mention, Sarah and I left the group to take naps? missed out on this whole commotion :P


Motorbiking
All night long and whenever we can
Ah lots of fun! ...minus the resulting
1) Arpun's foot injury
2) My exhaust pipe burn
3) Confusing search for late-night gas stops on very low tanks


4am Steamboat
In fact, we enjoyed joyriding so much the four of us - Gerald, Frederick, Ted, me - decided to take the ~15min drive down to the more late-night lively Patong Beach and find some food. We end up having a delicious steamboat meal... and ask Gerald about the lovely boys errr I mean ladies that he met and courted :-) I was super sleepy tho, falling asleep on the motorbike ride back, kind of dangerous...


Beach Bum
Saturday we got up super early to take a tour of Phi Phi Island, but the water swells on the boat were extremely extremely high and choppy. I was sitting in a bad spot and got soaked in sea water and alot of us got sea sick or almost did. The waves were too difficult to navigate for the island tours, so the trip was canceled by the captain. Oh the captain was quite cool, a Thai with Australian accent hehehe :) So instead we spent a chill afternoon at the beach, lots of fun, then shopping and massages, and visiting the beach at night with 7/11 bottles :P (That is, until Arpun had a little boo-boo. But tis kay, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger :D)





Phang Nga Bay
Sunday we went on boat tour to another area that had better weather, James Bond Island, from the Man with the Golden Gun movie I think. Relaxing around, twas really pretty, kayaking in the mountain caves/lagoons, swimming around the area. Just taking in the sights <3

Sunday night, well the guys decided they wanted to see a real Thai night for their last night so we hung out a few bars with dancer girls.. moved on to other bars with dancer ladyboys... and after a long series of misadventures, moved to Dclub, which contained both a dance club and a strip club. A couple of the guys stayed there all night, need more be said? :)


Thus ends the short version of my extremely sleep-deprived vacation in Phuket <3