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Friday, November 28, 2008

Don't worry baby, everything will turn out alright

Can you believe it, I am 12 time zones away from Home, and still that is not far enough to escape the nagging.

The Mom-Nag.

Seriously, it's as though mothers feel incomplete, like something's missing, if they don't nag at someone - son, daughter, unfortunate husband.

So one night my roommate had a male friend (almost-boyfriend) over; I couldn't sleep, I didn't want to do homework, so I came out into the hallway and called Home.

And would you believe ah, I got nagged as though my mom was spewing forth 3 month's worth of pent up Nag-ness.

"Mou gam yeh chong liong ah! Nei everyday sai tou ah? Mou nei ji mou! Yew yong hairdryer ah! Nei goh dou gam dong, hai winter time, mm sai everyday sai tou geh, yat jeng gan baeng jor dim hou?"

(Cantonese, btw.)

So anyway.

That's not event the worst of it. I told her about the courses I chose for next semester.

(So weird right, I've only been here for 3 months, and already course registration for next semester was due 2 weeks ago!)

I told her I signed up for classes in Philosophy, Psychology, Art and French. And a one-credit Javanese dance class.

I might as well have told her I got pregnant.

She went on and on about how Art is not not not a good choice, why would I want to do one semester of art, I'm not going to major in it, and I'm not going to learn proper art in one semester, what is one semester of art?!

So I was trying to argue my point about how art IS a good choice, but the line was bad that night, she kept going, "HAH? WHAT? HAH??", and it was past midnight, people were sleeping so I couldn't talk any louder, you can imagine how aggrevated I was.

"Mm hai yah! Nei teng ngo kong! Ngo lei yi dou zau hai yew explore different areas mahh!"

Honestly speaking la, I don't even know why my parents are spending money to send me here if they want me to stick to the same ol' traditional few subjects.

Maths. Science. English. WTH.

That totally defeats the purpose of a Liberal Arts Education.

But you know what, the best thing about my parents is, even though they have super traditional Chinese thinking, even though they think Medicine, Dentistry, Engineering, Law etc. are the best fields, they never never force us into what they think is Proper but know that we don't like. Or better put, they let us pursue what we like think we are passionate about.

I mean, my brother stopped schooling for a bit to go on a 2-year mission, after which he would finish up his major in sculpture. A SCULPTURE major whaddaheck! That alone says a lot about how my parents don't restrict us at all.

So, as expected, before the phone call ended my mom did eventually go, "Aiyah, nei zhong yi lah. Ngo dim gong nei dou mm wui teng ge lah."

("Aiyah, whatever you like lah. I say what also you won't listen one lah.")

Which I take as a sign to mean I CAN DO WHATEVER I WANT. Within reason la of course.

* * * * *

Oh and speaking of classes, I did very badly in my Anthropology exam. No surprise there.

People who were done were leaving one by one, and when it reached the end of class-time I was like, what the heck, hand in only la. But my professor, seeing my half-done page, went, "It's okay, I'll give you an extra 5 minutes."

So there I was, alone in the room, with my extra 5 minutes, trying to figure out what fluff I can add to pad up my super short essay.

After the exam, I went to do my laundry, and I had to walk outdoors to this other dorm because my dorm doesn't have its own laundry room.

So there I was, in t-shirt, a sweatshirt, sweatpants, and flip flops. That's it, nothing else.

And what were other people wearing?

Heavy jackets, scarves, and gloves. And boots.

I was in sweats and flip flops!

I must've been so numbed from being depressed about my exam I didn't even feel the cold.

Haih.

* * * * *

Bagaimana. I have lost the enthusiasm for studying. Or learning.

I mean, I love my classes. I can't wait to speak fluent French, my tutorial class is SO much fun because we watch comedies and have fun discussions, and learning about African tribes and how they go about their daily lives in Anthro class is super interesting. (I can't say much about my calculus class. I don't even know why I took it in the first place.)

But telling me to do my homework / study for an exam is like telling me I have to walk to KL for a bowl of pan meen. I love (LOVE!) pan meen, but the thought of the long walk stops me from going.

I don't feel like studying.

Two more weeks of classes, another week of final exams, and then we're home freeeeeeeeeee!

Or NOT. Everyone's going home but MEEEEEEEEEE =(

One of my friends invited me to stay over with her in San Francisco over winter, so that means -
1. No need spend Christmas here (there are people staying here, but it's still going to be real quiet)
2. Can maybe see my bro
3. Can usher in new year in San Francisco! A proper city! NO CORNFIELDS!

But air tickets are expensive. (But I'll be saving on accommodation...) But air tickets are still expensive! And meals and stuff.

Some of us are talking about going to Disneyland during spring break next March, so how.

I'm using my own money because I don't wanna spend my parents', so it's only one or the other.

Disneyland with a bunch of people definitely takes precedence over San Francisco with very few people.

Sighhh, means really spending winter here.

I don't even care about not being able to go home anymore. I just want something to DO.

I'm going to die from boredom and rot away during winter break. And when my roommate comes back a month later she'd have to brush the cobwebs and dust off me.

* * * * *

I've been playing Beach Boy's Don't Worry Baby on repeat for two days now.

I don't have to worry about annoying anyone because everyone in my hall is American, and so they've all gone home for Thanksgiving.

Jealous sangat.

But STILL. Beach Boys?!

What is wrong with me?

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Nom nom nom.

Nom nom nom.

Anthropology exam tomorrow and here I am online, reading blogs, happily munching on Harvest Cheddar flavoured SunChips - best junkfood in the world! (After SuperRing.)

Nom nom nom.

9 chapters of my textbook waiting to be read.

Nom nom nom.

Spent all of Sunday watching movies =(

Nom nom nom.

Watched High School Musical, Lion King, and 1776. Was at the lounge in my friend's dorm the entire day.

Nom nom nom.

1776 was a 2.5-hour long musical about the writing of the US Constitution. Damn boring. Two-and-a-half hours!! 2.5 hours of watching Benjamin Franklin singing and John Adams telepathically talking to his far-away wife.

Nom nom nom.

Fell asleep while lying on the couch during the musical. Felt bad because the Americans were very enthusiastic about watching.

Nom nom nom.

Fortunately we turned off the lights and said Americans didn't know I was not at all interested in that super old musical they "were forced to watch during 7th grade US history class".

Nom nom nom.

Spent all of last night looking at clothes from VictoriaSecret.com with my super rich friend, to whom all clothes on said site are "so cheap!!!".

Nom nom nom.

Found out one of my friends very enthusiastically asked me to go to her church on Sunday because they were giving out free turkeys to first-time visitors. Chehhhhhhh.

Nom nom nom.

But was invited to have thanksgiving dinner with them during which said turkey would be roasted, so feel less used.

Nom nom nom.

Also found out that while I was at that turkey-giving church, another friend came to my room twice to see if I was going to go to our usual church. FELT SO HORRIBLE. Had no phone to contact her.

Nom nom nom.

GOT A NEW PHONE!!!!!!! After 3 months of being uncontactable and of making calls through my dorm phone! (So pathetic!)

Nom nom nom.

It's a red LG Shine, the new model, not the older version.

Nom nom nom.

One night I walked out of the dining hall still happily chewing a mouth-full of food when a friend saw me and went, "Nom nom nom!" as he imitated my chewing.

Nom nom nom.

I laughed so hard I choked myself.

Nom nom nom.

I am still online.

Nom nom nom.

I can foresee a long, long night of frantic cramming tonight.

Nom nom nom.

I finished my Harvest Cheddar flavoured SunChips =(

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Okay. Halloween!

A little African American boy came up to us on the night of Halloween, with fake teeth and black cloak and all, and what do you suppose he said screamed?


"I'M HALF CHRIS TUCKER HALF VAMPIYAHHH!"



It was so damn funny! I didn't know being African American alone was a costume dress-up. Like that then I can just walk around normal like that and say that I am Lucy Liu, or Karen Mok.

Not that I look like them, but because I am Chinese and they are Chinese therefore I am halfway to dressing up as them.

Okay I digressed.

Halloween night, I know there were people from college who dressed up and went trick-or-treating downtown, but I had to pass up on that because I was in Des Moines, spending my evening with a bunch of super adorable, yet super scarily hyperactive little kids.

Like, one of the activities we did was "mummy wrap", which was essentially us, "College Kids", wrapping them up in toilet paper so that they resemble a mummy (er d'oh?). This super mean 6-year-old dude hands damn itchy, he tore the toilet paper off a freshly-wrapped girl, and they actually started fighting. Punching each other, more like. Super scary, man.

Usually there' be 10 of us College Kids and 20+ of them, but on Halloween night it was super crazy, there were actually 40+ of them. If that night had been the first night that I went there, I'd most probably never want to go again.

(We go there every week and do activities with the kids, then end the night with snacks and story-telling.)

So I missed the events on the actual day, but it didn't matter, because the real fun was Saturday night, when Halloween Harris took place!

Harris parties are huge campus parties held every Saturday night at the Harris building, and the beer is college-sponsored, believe it or not. That is a huge thing considering the fact that legal drinking age here is 21, and you need proper ID to buy alcohol. Harris parties are usually very interestingly themed, like last week they had "Fetish" (needless to say, there were a lot of weirdly-dressed people), another week they had "80's Harris", and I think "Mary B James" is coming up soon, where everyone cross-dresses.

Anyway. That Saturday was obviously Halloween Harris, and that was where the fun was!

Before the Harris party a few of us attended this college musical, and by the time we got back it was pretty darn late, so we pretty much got our costumes done in less than half an hour.

My friend's roommate doesn't go to Harris parties (due to the drunkenness found in such parties and a pact with her boyfriend back in Los Angeles), but she was damn semangated when it came to helping us with our costumes! Like, she very enthusiastically smeared red dye all over me (to make me look dead and bloody) and at times she went, "Put some there, there! That's not enough, more!" I had to stop her, 'cause I looked pretty darn bloody already.




Okay la here you cannot really see properly, but I had red dye smeared all over my arms and legs. Oh and a hand print wrapped around my neck, to imply that I've been strangled to death.


Hahah we didn't have white paint, so my friend got baby powder from someone else for me to put on my face. By the end of the night most of the powder had fallen off.

You know what was damn funny? People were surprised that I actually owned this super-nerdy outfit. Like one girl asked, "Where did you get your shirt and dress?"
I very normally like that replied, "I had it all along."
And she went, O_O
(Fwuah, first time I use these Japanese face symbol things in my blog. Pretty useful also lah.)

(I went as a murdered school girl, if you hadn't already guessed.)

I didn't have my camera, so everything was taken off Facebook. I hate Facebook, but I can't do without it. How can ah?
Too bad my favorite photo of the night isn't uploaded. It was so super creepy, I felt my heart drop the first time I saw it. It was a group photo of us, but behind me was the weirdest, creepiest face with the weirdest, creepiest smile. I was like, why suddenly got face?!

Turned out to be one of my friends, with poor face make-up (trying to look like Joker, failed miserably), but this guy was super tall, so him and his weird crooked smile was looming over us.

Dunno la, I was just really creeped out to see suddenly got that thing behind me.

Aaaaanyway.

Don't be deceived by the tameness of that photo wei, our costumes were nothing, NOTHING compared to what other peoples'.

Two guys, each dressed as a slice of bread, was going around hugging people (making "people sandwiches", get it?), another person went as V from V for Vendetta (creepiest costume hands down), then there was a guy dressed as Sarah Palin, it was damn funny. There were a lot more creative ones, because I remember spending the night laughing at people's crazy costumes, but now I can't recall what they were.

For the most part, the international students tend to not go as wild as the Americans that night, but I suspect that is only because it was the first Halloween for most of us. Like, after I was done dressing up, I was worried about going out in my horrible make up, I thought I was over made-up. But my friend, who's from California and has done Halloween a gazillion times, was like, "THAT, is nothing. There are going to be people much more crazy than you!" I think next year should be damn exciting loh!

Okay so that was that. Halloween over.

Nothing exciting has happened since then.





Okay not quite true also, but I'm in my Lazy Mood (when am I ever not eh?), so I'll write about it next time.



I have so much to write about, but I have no time to write about the things I want to write about.

Okay, that should be the truth in theory.

I have French, Anthropology AND Calculus exams next week. In theory, I should be so busy that I skip meals and become a semi-permanent fixture in the library.

In practice, it is entirely different, of course.



Anyway, next time I'll tell you about how I made the best Malaysian dish ever and had everyone in school captivated by the sheer deliciousness of the dish.

Okay not completely true also.





Okay bye bye.

WELCOME!

Sit back, put your feet up, and read whatever ramblings of Chooiyen.

Grab a cuppa while you're at it, too.
Because Chooiyen has got a lot to say!

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