I honestly believe i might have made it through the toughest part of the quarter. the first few weeks was intense with the struggles with the chairs. on the bright side, it is now on display in the hallway and I got an A on them. in the end I was the only crazy person who re-did the project and other people just couldn't be bothered. ah well. at least my conscience is clear and I know i did what i could.

the cops here have started to get horses to ride around the city and it is rather a weird sight to look out your window in the morning and eating breakfast and seeing horses in your little park square :S kinda cool cos it gives you the country vibe. WOOOooo :D then there are weddings and banquets held in the ballroom next door so we get to join in the celebration by opening our windows and emily and i just sit there watching the whole thing. there was a jazz band in the square accompanied by a whole troupe of couples in tuxedos and other formal stuff waving white hankies. what that whole thing was about we have no idea, but it was definitely fun to watch. oh the loveliness of living here.

we might have started getting on one another nerves with 2 of the girls taking a stronger ownership of this house, bringing friends over till obnoxious hours and it's all so awkward because I do believe i'm the only international asian kid who actually lives with other white people. every other international kid i know lives with other asians. it's good though. the little tension we've been getting is mainly how the shared space isn't used respectedly. being on the one-man end of the whole deal i didn't have much to say until i realised emily too doesn't quite know the other 2 girls. amidst this similarity, we have banded together and have grown a pretty awesome friendship. it just sucks that her stomach is so sensitive that she can't eat alot of stuff.

speaking of food, i've started experimenting and exploring more and i invested in several sauces and seasoning while has expanded my meals. I've started eating healthier and yummier meals which has comprived of char siew chicken baked in the oven, sweet and sour fish fillet, sweet and sour tofu and shrimp and mushroom, curry, nasi lemak, cereal chicken (I was too poor to afford prawns :( ) but BEST OF ALL.... the discovery of more stuff in chinatown market. i am absolutely delighted in the treasures. i found tau gua and tau pok and the five spice seasoning which means i can make the yummy yummy five spice soup thingy that my maid used to cook all the time till we got so sick of it. HO HO HO. i also have the seasoning for singapore's chilli crab so all i need now is to go buy crabs and FEAST. MUAHAHAHA. upon discovery another secret compartment of the already secret chinatown market section, i gasp with great delight and held in my hands the yellow mee that i would need to make mee rebus and prawn mee and all things amazing. yummmmm

here for another one of my weekly updates (though hopefully it won't be this little).

quite eventful though things did seem pretty ordinary with a little burst of fireworks now and then. I had a research paper that i wrote published in the school's english textbook supplement and it got read by the dean of the writing department. The hilarious part of it all is that he wrote to me personally asking me to give writing as a major a try. Based on the fact that my writing is seriously pretty bad from the Cs,Ds and Es that i normally get for GP back at SA...one can only conclude that a) the standard here sucks or b) i've improved alot.

i think it's pretty much a bit of both because the maths here is really sec 1 level of algebra and factorisation but I am very aware that I've finally learnt what a thesis statement is and how to structure each paragraph and make the whole essay and also how to do research. I've absolutely fallen in love with the access I have to all these databases to gather information. If only we had that in PW. OH WELL.

on that note, I'm pretty delighted with the classes that I'm taking this quarter. my 20th century art hist prof may be a tad bit sleep inducing, but he's definitely very passionate about art and his knowledge of it is pretty extensive and up to date. it's been very enriching to just sit in class and listen though I wish he could be more perky cos his humor is abit dry. english lit class is another relatively boring class if not for the fact that I'm exposed to the new york times book review which i must admit, is rather fascinating and I'm pretty interested in doing more readings now. I am however, struggling with what this class is trying to do :S it's very unlike the lit classes we have back home. I mean...we look at 2 stories each 2.5 hour class and that's pretty much it. then we go home and write a response paper that is open ended. no question on theme or language or development of character or plot. I'm still not quite sure what I'm supposed to do! :S

drawing for design has been a very tedious, time consuming and very frustrating experience. well..at least the chair design that i was working on. but I must say, I've learnt alot about perspective and this has definitely enlightened me on how people can convert a building into various views. so while this exercise has been a pain in the butt hole, it was good in helping me understand the concepts of perspective. saying so...my chair looks like shit. i am disgusted with myself.

life drawing is a relatively interesting yet awkward thing. i thought I have gotten used to the whole naked person idea but apparently not. I found myself secretly blushing (ok not so secret when i blush) when the model stripped and it was just a female model :S i guess it's weird to see different body types cos when the fat woman stripped, it was pretty more of a mental idea that it's not going to pretty. so seeing like a normal person's body was like i don't know. didn't really know what to expect? and the male model little swingy pendulum still bothers me ALOT. i don't quite like the concept of sex and am now more abhorred to the idea.

anyhoowsss..my roommates had a party last night that consisted of only 25 people but it seriously felt like more than 50. popular people were here but the focus was more on the number of people doing the merlion in my house last night. it was so stupid how people just don't know how to control themselves. thank goodness my bathroom is hidden in my room so I only had people peeing in here and not puking. that would be disgusting. but yeah...my roommate got pretty drunk (couldn't walk straight at all) and so did her close friend who pretty much puked so much that she crapped in her pants too. Got so bad we had to send everyone home to call the paramedics cos everyone here is below 21 and underaged for alcohol. bad bad bad. so yeah. drama drama and very disgusting to have people puking and hearing about it...and smelling it :S

but i'm half impressed and half not with my roommates. for one, they didn't want to call the paramedics for fear of getting into trouble. i mean..HELLO. you're not going to be in that huge a trouble for underage drinking versus risking someone's life. but we did call the paramedics and nothing happened thankfully. but i'm very impressed with how they were very willing to help clean the friend up with puke and shit and stay in there with the kid. I don't know how far I would have gone if it were my friend but I doubt I would. it was gross. I'm not such great a person after all. then again..this will probably not happen to any of my friends. so it's chill.

drama drama. exciting night yesterday :D

i haven't died.

but i think I'm well on my way. I am officially on the deadly 4 classes a quarter stunt that few has dared pull off.

I am one brave brave soul.

or some might say. crazy/stupid.

it's only week one and i feel like i'm juggling a ton of things already and haven't quite had the opportunity to make house visit to friends. it suddenly feels as though having people back for the quarter is no different from the summer. except that savannah has tons of people all around once again. AND annoying freshman to add. URGH.

So in an attempt to do some form of service to God since I'm quite unparticipative in church, I did the info session for SCAD for Downpour, the bible study that I regularly attend. I got a free shirt and 2 water bottles and I met a new Singaporean to add to the measly list of us here. what was more surprising was that he was from a JC. what was even more surprising was that he was from hwa chong. WAH LAO. he is wasting his brain. hahaha. nonetheless, people like him make me feel less stupid about going to JC and then throwing all that studying away for the arts. lol. I see him now and then looking more like lost china scholar and today at the club and organisations fall fest, i saw him staring in awe at american kids running to the bouncy castle (yes. we are college kids. but hey! we are ART college kids. we do stupid/crazy stuff). I proceeded to look around at the clubs and when I got back, I found him seated on the grass by himself with sketchbook in arm, sketching the bouncy castle. what a nerd i thought to myself. and then i found myself smiling. :S I think I have a soft spot for guai kias.

anyhoos. having all these homework has definitely made me realise that i do love drawing alot. even if it's meticulous perspective drawings. I just love how professional it looks at the end with the underdrawings of blues. sort of like how animators at disney or pixar...or like interior designers and architects. life drawing is fun too as I threw away all careful, meticulous nature and throw in sketchy lines of gesture and it did give me a certain satisfaction of freedom. It was partially a break from homework while doing homework. yet, the knowledge of drawing 10 skeletons in proportion was quite daunting and I ended up spending 5 hours at Anderson drawing Mr. Bones. I am a slooowww worker >.<

i wonder if I will survive this quarter. I have a feeling it will flyyyyyyy by quickly :) YAY.

my roommates had a little party last night with several friends. I don't mind it since it's not like the house is brimming with people whatsoever and it was honestly interesting to meet people yesterday. For the first time in my life, I've witnessed how people act when drunk. lol :p it was definitely an interesting experience even if I mainly sat from my room and listened.

While most people when drunk just act retarded, i found out that one of my roommates is a SAD drunk. it was kinda confusing because you could hear her in the hall way half crying half laughing, but what I learnt from this episode is really what great friends they have.

it was 3 am in the morning when the party simmered down and only close friends remained and the girls were sort of wasted though not out. but the guys stayed with them and made sure the sad drunk roomie was alright and insisted to stay until she puked to feel better. These are the very same guys who have been helping us carry heavy stuff and drove the girls around places to shop for stuff etc. hearing how sweet they are definitely made me feel warm and fuzzy on the inside as I sat on my bed and looked at my photos on the wall of my friends and I and I realised...

...how important friends are in our lives.

so to all me friends. thank you for being my friends and i love you all.

DO SMACK ME IF I'M AN ASSHOLE TO YOU.

YAY. all the roommates are back and it feels like the dorm again, with other people's music and noise in the background. I don't particularly like a noisy house, but small forms of other noises definitely bring a sense of comfort of knowing that you are not alone in the entire world. I feel connected once again and finding myself delighted in the company of others.

With all 3 other girls back in the house, the work of decorating and ordering the house is back and running. the house now feels more like a house and the interior designer and girly side of all the girls are out at work and play and the house is now a BURST of colors. looks like a 120 water color set just exploded and splattered neatly on every single thing, adding flowers and swirls here and there. Compared to their individual rooms, my room appears totally like a guy's. Monotonous with earthy tones all around. beige, brown, white and black all in various tints, tones and shades. In an attempt to spruce up my room without spending cash on pretty furniture, I've broken my tradition of having no photos on my walls. To be honest, I've never taken posters or pictures or anything else for that matter to paste on my walls but I figured why not try it out and I guess having them does make me feel a little more like a girl...a girl in school.

Perhaps it might make me more homesick staring at these pictures of my good buddies back home. my church mates, my brudders, my JC friends...in no specific preferences of course. i love you all. but as I dugged them all out from my little memory box, I felt like such a dooshbag and a lousy friend for not being as sweet about lil gifts and letters. As I looked through them, memories and emotions flooded through me as I figured....heck to the homesickness. a little pain now and then is worth it for all these warmth and fuzziness. so now...with all my beloved friends up on my wall, I can go to bed looking at them and feel happy falling asleep and waking up to their faces once again. As if I'm back home with all of them <3

Things by far have been going pretty great with the roommates, though admittedly, I do feel left out now and then considering how they're all good friends with one another and I am after all, a new person to all of them. they've been great though, introducing me to their friends and I'm happy I moved out of my comfort zone and it does feel as though my circle of life has expanded. I no longer have to worry about messy roommates and we've all been neat and clean freaks so we just wash each other's dishes when its convenient to and its all done in good heart.

i got to meet several asians the other day as well. Facebook is a wonderful thing. I met all the Singaporeans on it and that was how I got invited to their housewarming party where I not only met up with my fellow countrymen, but also fellow ASEAN people from vietnam and our neighboring malaysia. the taiwanese were less than friendly while the vietnams were a tad bit over-friendly and it was honestly quite uncomfortable. but Singaporeans...man...it's like a natural thing to find comfort in your fellow men. yes yes. so that makes meeting all the singaporeans here. It felt so good as I entered the house and saw a table full of food that screamed "HOME". crab, lemon crispy fish, curry, miso soup, pandan cake, fried rice and white rice, bubble tea and the one that made me cry and tear within was soy sauce chicken. it super reminded me of my grandma *sniff sniff*. but man..it was good food :D :D :D the two singaporean guys and I sat and talked and it's so funny, but we were ALL in robotics so we sat there and talked about it. this just goes to show how much of a nerd we all are >_<>

so with new found friends...here's a start to a brand new section of my life once again.....