First Day Funk
Ahh yes, there is another gap in the flow of events of this blog since Rag Day (pre- and post- too) drained the life out of me and I'm too lazy to blog it anyway, I shall skip the details. Then again, let me just say that the NUS Student Union guys, in-charge of the event, need to seriously consider thinking about the welfare of the students and the performers (including the choir that seemed to stupidly just mouth the words because of the absence of the promised mike), and not just parade around as if they're demigods. KR won most environment-friendly float, a gold award for crossing the $50K mark for Flag Day collections, and some Shield (?) for highest collection among halls. I'd have to say I was blown away by the Sheares Float, and they deserved to win. Science won a lot too with their cute float! But too bad Bizad's funky float, which I liked a lot, didn't get the recognition it deserved.
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First day of class today! First of my second year as an undergrad here at NUS. Well it wasn't as funky as this post's title claims (it's the just the title of a cool back-to-school danceable song made by the Philippines' wackiest band, Parokya ni Edgar), and my in fact started baaad.
Having slept at 2am because I had to print out my notes after a long Sunday (mass, grocery with Karen at IMM, small impromptu "picnic" party at Jeunesse's place with the Pinoys at night, NWC file-making for me too), it required maximal effort to drag me out of bed for my 8am class.
Even if I took the Supplementary bus to Science Fac, the fastest bus from KR, I was still a few minutes for my first class, ST2137 Computer Aided Data Analysis. The lecturer was nice, I saw fellow choir fellas Iris and Tang Qing, but the problem was that I was too exhausted to keep myself up. The Indian lecturer finally announced a break, and I dashed to get myself my exam friend: coffee. And then this bastard with a backpack bumped me as he was paying at the counter, and tada, coffee stains on my new shirt! And worst part is, he didn't even apologise! Sigh.
I grudgingly went back to the lecture theatre for the rest of the lecture. Afterwards at 10AM, I began thinking about what exactly to do in my 2-hour breaks. Because really, if there's a day in the week that's totally screwed schedule-wise, it's Monday. So classes are 8-10AM, break, 12-2PM, break, 4-6PM, short break to rush to hall and grab dinner, then choir practice 6:30-9:30PM. So essentially, Mondays want me to wake up before 8AM, figure out what to do in my two-hour breaks (they're long enough to bore me, and too short to go back to hall and get some sleep), take an either early lunch before 12 or a late lunch after 2, and go for choir practice at night after an already long day.
ANYWAY, I managed to keep my breaks nice and productive today, so that's great. I checked my email and tada, finally after some 12+ weeks of waiting, I now get to borrow The Da Vinci Code for a week (not two weeks since it's still there's a long queue of borrowers still). Finally I get to read the book in print, and not the electronic version. I bid for CORS, but nah, the rest of the school apparently has gazillion points to spare, and I really should delay FNA1002 Financial Accounting next sem.
After an unplanned lunch with fellow D-blocker Allen, I went to Bizad at 12 to take my first Bizad module, BSP1005 Managerial Econs. I'm taking it with Gail and Oliver, a new guy from Ateneo HS, and quite a number of KR people I didn't expect to find. Boon Sern, and my fellow D-blocker Dominic and some other guy. The Korean lecturer had an American accent, and he emphasized that he will teach a different econs from the usual econs, since this is from a business manager's perspective. He was okay, although, well, he could do better by picking up the pace a teeny bit.
Oliver and I sat down for 20 minutes in The Module I Can't Get FNA1002, and walau, the LT was overflowing. I didn't realize it was such a hot module, and even non-Bizad people were bidding for it. I saw D-Block Head Basu, who's from Engin, and he told me he bid 2000 points for the module. Good for him. The lecturer was in coat and tie, apparently because he seemed to look like an undergrad in any other usual clothing. He's got a PhD now, see, so I guess he had to look the part. In fairness to him, he appeared to work a lot on his Powerpoint presentation, and he appeared to be witty and funny and smart. Janice from Choir, my fellow Biz minor stude, is very glad she's in his class.
I went back to Hall to rest a bit, and to kill the 1 hour+ break, I decided to continue reading Da Vinci. I caught the slowest bus in NUS (that's A2 in the afternoon for you), and thus I was late for 15 minutes for my class in Science. But when I reached the LT, surprise surprise Diana and my classmates were moving out already. Apparently the lecturer is quite a man of few words. In fact, the IVLE page, which supposedly contains the syllabus and lecture notes and links and course info was empty as of last night. Well, so much for the rush. Diana was chatting with this guy Kevin, who I had met last sem in my tutorial class. Kevin forgot my name, but I didn't forget his because he saved me from this tutorial question I solved wrongly on the whiteboard, and everybody else was either unwilling or clueless (the former more likely) to help me find what was wrong.
Met Justin in the Science Co-op. Always nice to see old friends. And oh yeah, Zhou Yang too on Sunday night, and Nirorn and Tuk too. Hehe always nice.
Iris and I went to PGP Music Room for the NUS Choir auditions, which were helping to facilitate. Cool, a number of good applicants. And I met Tram an old friend too! Although there was this angmoh (Caucasian) guy who smelled of alcohol, who was accompanying his Indian friend audition. This red-all-over angmoh was talking crap all throughout, telling us he was from Azerbaijan (which we seriously doubt since his first answer was that he was from the moon), asking why PGP has a pond with fish and a water fountain but no swimming pool (Li Yi told him there was one at the SRC, but then no he asked for a sauna), complaining that Singapore is a lousy country which Singaporeans don't really appreciate (to which Li Yi said she doesn't find Singapore lousy at all), and when pressed as to which aspects Singapore was lousy in, he said in fashion of all things. He said that Singapore finds thick-rimmed glasses nice, which to him was very weird. Um, do Singaporeans really? I don't think the think-rimmed glasses fashion is a national phenomenon. He was horsing around the whole time, and when his Indian girl friend was finally finished, we all were relieved it was time for him to leave.
This nice Singaporean guy who was there to accompany his own friend audition had been in the conversation with the angmoh, and commented that the guy was wearing a bad combo of boots and pants, and that the angmoh was in a fashion disaster and thus unfit to comment. Good riddance, Li Yi said.
I went back to hall to take-away my dinner, and was back at PGP for the choir practice for Timeless Classics. It was a good happy one, and when I went back to hall at 10PM, I caught the freshmen practising for their Star to Burst presentation. I joined in and helped them a bit with what little I know, and then proceeded to the lobby to watch another set of freshmen doing a dance number. This year's batch of freshmen are really pretty nice and friendly. I like them a lot. I think I'm feeling more and more comfy in KR now, contrary to what I expected since a lot of my batchmates left KR this year.
Now I blog, tomorrow is National Day, the perfect time to sleep and rest. Finally. Good night and Majulah Singapura!
