So now here I am in the big bright Hong Kong International Airport (this is the 3rd, and certainly not the last, time I've been here for this trip), waiting for Dad and Nat to get in from Singapore in about an hour. Yay for free Wifi! I think they give us free Wifi here just so we can go online to vote for HKG as the best airport in the world, as the many billboards and posters around here encourage us to do. It certainly isn't bad, very convenient and well run. I just got here early because I flew from Phuket with a layover in Bangkok rather than all the way back down to Singapore as Dad and Nat are doing.
And wow it looks like Quincy Chan got into NUS for study abroad next semester! UC Berkeley makes study abroad much more competive than it is at Rice, so this is no small achievement for him. Now I just hope I find a way to be able to visit Singapore again while he's there, and we can have another grand adventure to another part of Southeast Asia. If only he applied last semester so he could be here the same time as me... but considering he just transferred to Cal last semester he probably had enough on his hands.
So I'll wrap up this post with last words on Thailand. Yesterday we went into Phuket City, where we saw a little more of the local life. It was very dirty, with cockroaches everywhere on the streets near the sewer holes, and they wern't skittish or shy when you walked near them, just enjoying themselves out in the open. Road traffic was definitely heavy, with lots of mopeds as well. When we were there the police were attempting to enforce the helmet law on those on mopeds, but considering almost every other rider didn't have a helmet, they could only stop so many people. Food was also a lot cheaper there compared to vendors at or near the resort, about 2 to 5 times cheaper. That night for dinner we went on a small motorboat out to a fish-farm, where they had set up a quaint little seafood restaurant on a floating island of just wooden planks, with these netted ponds everywhere where they kept the seafood for sale, so we could just walk around and look at what they had to offer. We got a few crabs, eels, and a big fish, which they caught and cooked for us. It was pretty good, but we ordered way too much.
And before you know it, the next day it was time to leave : ( I was getting pretty used to living at the beachside villa myself, but it's time to move on.
Thursday, February 26, 2009
Wednesday, February 25, 2009
Phuket, Thailand
Last week my Dad and sister came to see me in Singapore, so I gave myself an excuse to ditch classes and work and show them around town as best I could. Natalee, my sister, was sick for two days so unfortunately she didn't see as much, but at least Dad got to do what he likes best about traveling: eating the local food. That and the Botanical Gardens, the Night Zoo, Chinatown, and more sightseeing, all of which I've already done but don't mind seeing again. Dad was also actually very well equipped to know Cantonese, as a surprisingly large number of hawkers and storekeepers spoke it, much more than I thought. So with Dad ordering we certainly didn't get anything that was bad, and never went hungry. You can never understate my Dad's way with Chinese food; going to Chinatown with him is like going from bottom-of-the-barrel, tourist-class goods & services to 1st-class, ultra-attentive pampering with the finest and freshest ingredients. It's as if there's some unspoken rule that if any of the waiters or chefs dares to disappoint Dad, they'll be gunned down in the night on their way home by a secret, Cantonese food-critic mafia. Reminds me that I really need to one time just follow my Dad into the kitchen for a month straight to learn his cooking skills; then I'll at least be making progress on my own.
OK, and so now we're in Thailand. Again, with Dad, we arrived in style. Somewhat by accident this time, though. We are staying in a beach resort on Phuket Island, and after being driven from the airport in a private Mercedes with comfortable amenities, we were informed at reception that the two hotel rooms we had originally reserved for ourselves and Auntie Sandra, who was coming in later from Shanghai, were unfortunately unavailable, so they were going to upgrade us to our own beachside villa with a private pool for no extra cost. Holy... cow... Talk about ultimate luxury, this place is swank. It's three stories, with very nice bedrooms in the basement floor where it's cooler, a spacious living room and kitchen with big screen LCD TV on the first floor, and a private outdoor pool and patio on the top floor. There's a total of like 5 balconies, with nice views of the lagoon. I'll put up pictures later, not taking photos on my own this trip, letting Natalee do all the work since she has to do it anyway for her Digital Photo class back at school. My advice to people who want to visit resorts anywhere in the world, bring a lot of people with you. More likely than not, the resort will make some little mistake in the reservation, and either give you the whole package for free or upgrade you to something really awesome. This also happened to me just this past Thanksgiving actually, when I went with 7 other family members to a resort on the Rio Grande, and they gave us the whole stay for free because they forgot to make all of our rooms connecting.
Now about Thailand. Phuket (pronouced "poo-ket", not "F**K-it!") itself is definitely a tourist-claimed area, with hordes of sunburned, usually older Caucasians roaming around. It's like Cancun or some Mexican/Caribbean resort place except the food and culture is Thai. And good Thai food, not the American crap back home. Thai food is actually my least favorite food back in the US, and here it's one of my favorites so far on this entire Southeast Asia trip. The food is actually spicy, but the spiciness is not the main attraction, it still tastes good. Thai restaurants in the US I think usually forget that last requirement. The beaches here are also very nice, and every so often you'll see a baby elephant just walking down the beach with it's owner, cute. We went elephant riding of course, snorkeling, and other sightseeing outings. There was a monkey that we saw that was trained to pick coconuts from the trees; I need a monkey like that. My newfound beverage obsession if I've not mentioned this earlier is coconut. A chilled, young coconut is perhaps the most refreshing drink in the world.
I've not had much chance to become familiar with local Thai culture on this trip, since we are in tourist town basically. All I know is that they greet each other with the "wai" gesture, and their language, like Japanese, has different spoken forms for men and women. They also have pictures of their King everywhere, although I hear the government is not very stable. The national sport is also Thai boxing, all the locals usually have their TVs tuned to a channel showing one of these matches. The locals are also living a very different lifestyle of course compared to the tourists. When you leave the well-guarded resort for excursions into town, you see lots of trash and thatched huts, little children running on the streets and water buffalo everywhere. One of those classic images of poverty that I remember in particular from this trip is a little boy running up a dirt hill with a piece of plastic trash in his hand tied to a string that he flew like a kite. Although it's not about Thailand, if you don't know much about poverty in Asia I highly recommend "Slumdog Millionaire", in fact I think I overheard it just won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was a a great story.
Overall this has just been a very relaxing trip for me, so much so that I've not even begun studying for my midterms which come this following week... such a bad idea to have this recess break BEFORE the tests, but that's just one stroke of bad luck for me. The rest is life on a beach...
OK, and so now we're in Thailand. Again, with Dad, we arrived in style. Somewhat by accident this time, though. We are staying in a beach resort on Phuket Island, and after being driven from the airport in a private Mercedes with comfortable amenities, we were informed at reception that the two hotel rooms we had originally reserved for ourselves and Auntie Sandra, who was coming in later from Shanghai, were unfortunately unavailable, so they were going to upgrade us to our own beachside villa with a private pool for no extra cost. Holy... cow... Talk about ultimate luxury, this place is swank. It's three stories, with very nice bedrooms in the basement floor where it's cooler, a spacious living room and kitchen with big screen LCD TV on the first floor, and a private outdoor pool and patio on the top floor. There's a total of like 5 balconies, with nice views of the lagoon. I'll put up pictures later, not taking photos on my own this trip, letting Natalee do all the work since she has to do it anyway for her Digital Photo class back at school. My advice to people who want to visit resorts anywhere in the world, bring a lot of people with you. More likely than not, the resort will make some little mistake in the reservation, and either give you the whole package for free or upgrade you to something really awesome. This also happened to me just this past Thanksgiving actually, when I went with 7 other family members to a resort on the Rio Grande, and they gave us the whole stay for free because they forgot to make all of our rooms connecting.
Now about Thailand. Phuket (pronouced "poo-ket", not "F**K-it!") itself is definitely a tourist-claimed area, with hordes of sunburned, usually older Caucasians roaming around. It's like Cancun or some Mexican/Caribbean resort place except the food and culture is Thai. And good Thai food, not the American crap back home. Thai food is actually my least favorite food back in the US, and here it's one of my favorites so far on this entire Southeast Asia trip. The food is actually spicy, but the spiciness is not the main attraction, it still tastes good. Thai restaurants in the US I think usually forget that last requirement. The beaches here are also very nice, and every so often you'll see a baby elephant just walking down the beach with it's owner, cute. We went elephant riding of course, snorkeling, and other sightseeing outings. There was a monkey that we saw that was trained to pick coconuts from the trees; I need a monkey like that. My newfound beverage obsession if I've not mentioned this earlier is coconut. A chilled, young coconut is perhaps the most refreshing drink in the world.
I've not had much chance to become familiar with local Thai culture on this trip, since we are in tourist town basically. All I know is that they greet each other with the "wai" gesture, and their language, like Japanese, has different spoken forms for men and women. They also have pictures of their King everywhere, although I hear the government is not very stable. The national sport is also Thai boxing, all the locals usually have their TVs tuned to a channel showing one of these matches. The locals are also living a very different lifestyle of course compared to the tourists. When you leave the well-guarded resort for excursions into town, you see lots of trash and thatched huts, little children running on the streets and water buffalo everywhere. One of those classic images of poverty that I remember in particular from this trip is a little boy running up a dirt hill with a piece of plastic trash in his hand tied to a string that he flew like a kite. Although it's not about Thailand, if you don't know much about poverty in Asia I highly recommend "Slumdog Millionaire", in fact I think I overheard it just won the Oscar for Best Picture. It was a a great story.
Overall this has just been a very relaxing trip for me, so much so that I've not even begun studying for my midterms which come this following week... such a bad idea to have this recess break BEFORE the tests, but that's just one stroke of bad luck for me. The rest is life on a beach...
Saturday, February 14, 2009
I got bageled and beared today...
Wow today turned out unexpectedly very good. I was predicting a glum, lonely Valentine's Day... this is the first V-day I've been officially unattached to anyone for...hmm... since freshman year of high school! I'm not saying I recommend this way of life, as you can tell from just glancing over my last post if you can even stand the stench of my cheesiness... it's even worse than the local durian.
So in the morning I played tennis today, and I was actually "bageled" on one set (this is a term we used in my high school tennis team a lot, means you lose a set 0-6, named because the "0" looks like a bagel, and the most popular snack food for our team was bagels). So it was a good match... still looking to lose an entire match, but that was a tough game, thanks Shaffi : )
After that, I had lunch with Yaliang and his girlfriend. We went to Holland Village, where unfortunately the BBQ fish shop I recommended for them was closed, so we went to Crystal Jade instead, the local Shanghainese style chain-restaurant. It was very nice, if not a bit expensive, but as always I had interesting conversations with Yaliang, including the Chinese vs. American perspective of the Dalai Lama, and whether or not President Leebron took a big risk in inviting him to give a lecture at Rice. Which reminds me, I had another very interesting political convo with another native Singaporean, but I've forgotten it... all I remember is at lunch one day I was eating with this British girl who sung a bit of the British national anthem for us, and I was laughing so hard when I heard it, because it sounded so unbelievably ridiculous. "Knavish tricks"? "Confound their politics"? Hahah... If I was drinking my bubble tea at the time I think not only would tea and milk come out of my nose, but whole tapioca balls as well. Hilarious...
Ok and after lunch I had a Valentine's Day dinner with the IFG group, along with my "date", Subhash. The IFG group is a very cool group of people, with some very friendly Singaporean hosts, and a cool exchange group as well. Many of those exchange students are Indian or Pakistani, and they kind of remind me of Jaimeet except extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY, passionate when playing games like charades or Mafia. The version of Mafia we played that night, compliments of Subhash, was "Bears", where you have bears who kill villagers rather than mafia. And the students there were the most intense group of students I have ever seen play, especially this Indian and Pakistani guy... it was fun; my voice is nearly gone from yelling at people so much trying to convince them I was not a bear... I'M A FREAKIN MEDIC, PEOPLE! DON'T KILL ME!!! We also tried games like "Ping Pong", and "Aliens"... the other students often have their own interpretations of what the rules for each game should be, due in bit to the language confusion, but that only makes it even more amusing.
Ok what else... I can't blog enough to keep up with the news. I got a haircut this week, which was one of the most intense haircuts I've ever gotten... when I was in Switzerland I remember I thought I had the weirdest haircut, it was with a very effeminite Filipino guy who worked in the back store-room of a local grocery store; it was the cheapest I could find in all of Zurich and it was still $25. And now, I went to some place that was about $10 but not only did he cut my hair he gave me a head massage and cleaned out my ears, which was a very weird feeling. Maybe he thought I was going deaf because I kept asking him to repeat whatever he was trying to say to me in his strong accent. But at least my hair is short again now, my head was getting so hot all the time from too much hair. And of course everyone gives me that comment... "Oh, you cut your hair..." No, duh. I'm trying to think of something witty to say next time someone asks me that, still processing on that one...
I've also lately been getting the comment, both personally and referring to this blog, that I can write pretty effectively. To those who think so, thanks, I try my best. Technically I am an engineer in training, but writing has always been a hobby of mine. Ever since I was pretty young I liked to write because I started off as a really shy kid, not talking much to strangers and only with close friends. I still tend to be shy sometimes, so writing is how I keep myself from having thoughts building up in my brain to boiling point. As for the somewhat cynical, blatant style, it was not always so. In middle school I remember my schoolmates used to say my writing was very girly, being full of adjectives and intense descriptions, and my English teacher even brought me to the principal's office once because she thought I was plagiarizing my essays from some story novel written primarily for girls. Understandibly, this bothered me, so I changed my style a bit. I wrote about political issues starting in high school, and man did that get me in a lot of trouble, but it was fun haha. I still remember reading the front page of our school newspaper featuring an article about my impeachment from the class presidency, and I thought, shit, I can write an article more interesting than that. Then it evolved into cynical critique, which I think all writers must hit at least some point in their career. I don't like too much cynicism though, that's just emo, or it reminds me of Zeno Yeates, who I think writes extremely well but sometimes it seems his personal life is heavily influenced by the habit. As of now, my writing is probably a mix of a lot of things, but I think my writing style is still much harsher than my normal conversation and speaking style. Of course it's easy to write like this when you don't have to face your audience directly. But no, I would never write for a career... nor would I give it up for anything in the world.
One thing that has not matured about me at all is my taste in music... haha I've liked techno for as long as I can remember, nobody will ever convince me to give up that. Although I have learned to keep track of what Alec Swafford likes these days, I remember hearing stuff in his room last year like Angels & Airwaves and the Killers and liking them all, which is rare for me since I usually hate rock. But techno is still the majority.
ZZzzz falling asleep now... I want to go to Pulau Ubin tomorrow, this is the 2nd weekend now that I've considered going, but I need to study... or I'll never have much time to study before I go traveling with family over the recess week. And I have midterms continuously right after the break: one on each day for Monday, Tues, Weds, Thurs... it's gonna be no fun : (
Wish me luck!
So in the morning I played tennis today, and I was actually "bageled" on one set (this is a term we used in my high school tennis team a lot, means you lose a set 0-6, named because the "0" looks like a bagel, and the most popular snack food for our team was bagels). So it was a good match... still looking to lose an entire match, but that was a tough game, thanks Shaffi : )
After that, I had lunch with Yaliang and his girlfriend. We went to Holland Village, where unfortunately the BBQ fish shop I recommended for them was closed, so we went to Crystal Jade instead, the local Shanghainese style chain-restaurant. It was very nice, if not a bit expensive, but as always I had interesting conversations with Yaliang, including the Chinese vs. American perspective of the Dalai Lama, and whether or not President Leebron took a big risk in inviting him to give a lecture at Rice. Which reminds me, I had another very interesting political convo with another native Singaporean, but I've forgotten it... all I remember is at lunch one day I was eating with this British girl who sung a bit of the British national anthem for us, and I was laughing so hard when I heard it, because it sounded so unbelievably ridiculous. "Knavish tricks"? "Confound their politics"? Hahah... If I was drinking my bubble tea at the time I think not only would tea and milk come out of my nose, but whole tapioca balls as well. Hilarious...
Ok and after lunch I had a Valentine's Day dinner with the IFG group, along with my "date", Subhash. The IFG group is a very cool group of people, with some very friendly Singaporean hosts, and a cool exchange group as well. Many of those exchange students are Indian or Pakistani, and they kind of remind me of Jaimeet except extremely, and I mean EXTREMELY, passionate when playing games like charades or Mafia. The version of Mafia we played that night, compliments of Subhash, was "Bears", where you have bears who kill villagers rather than mafia. And the students there were the most intense group of students I have ever seen play, especially this Indian and Pakistani guy... it was fun; my voice is nearly gone from yelling at people so much trying to convince them I was not a bear... I'M A FREAKIN MEDIC, PEOPLE! DON'T KILL ME!!! We also tried games like "Ping Pong", and "Aliens"... the other students often have their own interpretations of what the rules for each game should be, due in bit to the language confusion, but that only makes it even more amusing.
Ok what else... I can't blog enough to keep up with the news. I got a haircut this week, which was one of the most intense haircuts I've ever gotten... when I was in Switzerland I remember I thought I had the weirdest haircut, it was with a very effeminite Filipino guy who worked in the back store-room of a local grocery store; it was the cheapest I could find in all of Zurich and it was still $25. And now, I went to some place that was about $10 but not only did he cut my hair he gave me a head massage and cleaned out my ears, which was a very weird feeling. Maybe he thought I was going deaf because I kept asking him to repeat whatever he was trying to say to me in his strong accent. But at least my hair is short again now, my head was getting so hot all the time from too much hair. And of course everyone gives me that comment... "Oh, you cut your hair..." No, duh. I'm trying to think of something witty to say next time someone asks me that, still processing on that one...
I've also lately been getting the comment, both personally and referring to this blog, that I can write pretty effectively. To those who think so, thanks, I try my best. Technically I am an engineer in training, but writing has always been a hobby of mine. Ever since I was pretty young I liked to write because I started off as a really shy kid, not talking much to strangers and only with close friends. I still tend to be shy sometimes, so writing is how I keep myself from having thoughts building up in my brain to boiling point. As for the somewhat cynical, blatant style, it was not always so. In middle school I remember my schoolmates used to say my writing was very girly, being full of adjectives and intense descriptions, and my English teacher even brought me to the principal's office once because she thought I was plagiarizing my essays from some story novel written primarily for girls. Understandibly, this bothered me, so I changed my style a bit. I wrote about political issues starting in high school, and man did that get me in a lot of trouble, but it was fun haha. I still remember reading the front page of our school newspaper featuring an article about my impeachment from the class presidency, and I thought, shit, I can write an article more interesting than that. Then it evolved into cynical critique, which I think all writers must hit at least some point in their career. I don't like too much cynicism though, that's just emo, or it reminds me of Zeno Yeates, who I think writes extremely well but sometimes it seems his personal life is heavily influenced by the habit. As of now, my writing is probably a mix of a lot of things, but I think my writing style is still much harsher than my normal conversation and speaking style. Of course it's easy to write like this when you don't have to face your audience directly. But no, I would never write for a career... nor would I give it up for anything in the world.
One thing that has not matured about me at all is my taste in music... haha I've liked techno for as long as I can remember, nobody will ever convince me to give up that. Although I have learned to keep track of what Alec Swafford likes these days, I remember hearing stuff in his room last year like Angels & Airwaves and the Killers and liking them all, which is rare for me since I usually hate rock. But techno is still the majority.
ZZzzz falling asleep now... I want to go to Pulau Ubin tomorrow, this is the 2nd weekend now that I've considered going, but I need to study... or I'll never have much time to study before I go traveling with family over the recess week. And I have midterms continuously right after the break: one on each day for Monday, Tues, Weds, Thurs... it's gonna be no fun : (
Wish me luck!
Hey you, if you're still following my blog, here's to you!
So if you're not still in lab working your tush off, or in the ballroom dancing until your feet fall off, or in your overheated little room studying your eyes out... or maybe, just maybe, still reading this blog, because your heart aches... well, thanks. This is the best I could do from S'pore, please pardon me, my favorite : )
Everything I've ever made for you had at least something to do with Totoro...
Now that cold-hearted douche on the left is leaving her for Europe... What next? Singapore?!
(San Jose Aeroporto)
Guy on the left: "Hey, sorry I couldn't chat longer, but I gotta go to Rice now, yeah, because I'm a freakin' intellectual!"
Girl on the right: "Oh, ok... Rice... that's a nice school. Have you heard of Harvard?"
Dizzy?
Happy V-day!
Ry
Everything I've ever made for you had at least something to do with Totoro...
Now that cold-hearted douche on the left is leaving her for Europe... What next? Singapore?!
(San Jose Aeroporto)
Guy on the left: "Hey, sorry I couldn't chat longer, but I gotta go to Rice now, yeah, because I'm a freakin' intellectual!"
Girl on the right: "Oh, ok... Rice... that's a nice school. Have you heard of Harvard?"
Dizzy?
Happy V-day!
Ry
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Let's check in with Mr. Pei, reporting live from the Equator of the Blogosphere...
I released Prince George, the huge tarantula-like spider that I kept for a while. He wasn't eating and seemed to be getting weaker, so I let him go in the grass near my building. By the way, that was a really weird religious rant that some dude left on my blog on that last post... you'll have to pardon my confused, immature friend. But it's OK I doubt few people actually read this blog regularly, one of the advantages of blogging vs. FB.
My daily routine has become much more routine since I got here, as I've pretty much settled into life in Singapore, a sign that I should consider traveling somewhere soon just to spice things up. But besides being more comfortable with how things are run around here, I've also stabilized more due to the realization that I probably need to start working for school... it's not entirely vacation. Midterms are coming up, and before I assumed that, hey, no big deal, I'll just pass my classes and everything will be A-OK. Oh wait, what about grad school? Ah poopers. If I ever want to try my luck with Stanford or MIT, I will certainly need to get good grades while here since they will want to see my transcript from all schools attended for.
Research activity has also increased since I first talked to my new supervisor, Prof. Choi, who I mention earlier for being especially kind in helping me settle my courses and offering me a position in his lab. I'm currently working with another undergraduate, Gabriel Lim, a really cool guy whose life's motto is like mine, "Work hard, play hard", except he's much better at it than I am. He's a real expert in his work, but he also goes to clubs and plays sports actively. He's showing me the ropes in the microfabrication lab, and he seems very glad to have me working with him on his equivalent of a senior design project so that's good. He was also in Europe working for the summer by coincidence, doing research at TUM, which is in the other big -ich city (Munich). Oh and another really strange coincidence, this Prof. Choi was also Yaliang's senior project adviser... I'm just hitting it with all the right people these days.
Outside of work, did fun stuff over the weekend. I think I talked about everything but Sunday in the last post. Sunday was when I went with Rachel et al to Sentosa for my second time, this time to see the Underwater World. My camera doesn't take good aquarium pics so I didn't even bother taking out my camera much, but fortunately Rachel's does so I'm going to use her photos on FB for future reference, as well as just these two that I took which show basically how amazingly interactive this particular aquarium is.
Unlike Monterey, which is memorable for having huge exhibits with very true-to-nature environments, Underwater World emphasizes letting you come face to face, or flipper to fin, with all their animals. Above you can see the world's longest traveling aquarium-tube thing, and a little girl feeding the fish in one tank through one of the ingeniously designed access ports. There were also many petting tanks for rays, sharks, etc. Like a typical Asian, I couldn't help but wonder what each of them tasted like as I touched them, but I managed to refrain from sneaking any of them out in my pockets. There was also a nice dolphin show, featuring pink dolphins, as well as those ugly pink apes (migrating from England or the US for the winter months) who stripped off all their clothes to go swimming with the dolphins during the show. Another law that Ryan humbly suggests to the Singapore government for consideration; restrictions against fat, old, and sunburned Caucasians from exposing anything more than than their faces in public... so gross.
That evening we had hotpot, or "steamboat" as it's called around here. Pretty fun, although I will admit that perhaps if Singapore ever has the right weather for eating hotpot, then we are all probably very screwed. Afterwards our kind hosts talked with us about their experiences traveling to Western countries, especially in Europe, where they encountered a large number of guys who hit on them (you know, that epidemic in the West called yellow fever, which I myself probably cannot test for negative). They were funny stories, but by the end I was starting to think that they were just bragging about being young, Asian females who could make so many guys lives miserable. So here I would say in defense of those pink apes, you can toy with them all you want, but make the most of your time because as you approach your metamorphosis into an old Asian lady, when driving they won't even want to share the road with you.
Just talking about that makes me scared of becoming old. What will happen when I can no longer travel the world? When I become slow and start wearing velcro shoes and slippers? Hopefully I won't be rotting somewhere wishing I was able to just go back to places like Zurich and Singapore to relive my youth... omg, what if I even start to miss Houston *gag* if I live elsewhere? OK I'm stopping here before I go into another rant.
Yesterday was the last day of the Lunar New Year's (I've learned to say "Lunar" rather than "Chinese" to be more politically correct, since a lot of other SoutheastAsian nationalities celebrate it as well). I had the last day's dinner with Yaliang and his girlfriend at his apartment. Right now he's taking night-time webcast courses from MIT for his master's, so hardcore. I also learned that last night was the fullest, brightest that the moon has ever been for the last 52 years, and it certainly was very bright.
OK, got to get to work for once. My regards to Mommy, this weekend was her birthday. Haha I still remember missing my flight from Houston last year to get home for her 50th... what a mess I am, need to get in shape in terms of my timeliness, starting NOW.
My daily routine has become much more routine since I got here, as I've pretty much settled into life in Singapore, a sign that I should consider traveling somewhere soon just to spice things up. But besides being more comfortable with how things are run around here, I've also stabilized more due to the realization that I probably need to start working for school... it's not entirely vacation. Midterms are coming up, and before I assumed that, hey, no big deal, I'll just pass my classes and everything will be A-OK. Oh wait, what about grad school? Ah poopers. If I ever want to try my luck with Stanford or MIT, I will certainly need to get good grades while here since they will want to see my transcript from all schools attended for.
Research activity has also increased since I first talked to my new supervisor, Prof. Choi, who I mention earlier for being especially kind in helping me settle my courses and offering me a position in his lab. I'm currently working with another undergraduate, Gabriel Lim, a really cool guy whose life's motto is like mine, "Work hard, play hard", except he's much better at it than I am. He's a real expert in his work, but he also goes to clubs and plays sports actively. He's showing me the ropes in the microfabrication lab, and he seems very glad to have me working with him on his equivalent of a senior design project so that's good. He was also in Europe working for the summer by coincidence, doing research at TUM, which is in the other big -ich city (Munich). Oh and another really strange coincidence, this Prof. Choi was also Yaliang's senior project adviser... I'm just hitting it with all the right people these days.
Outside of work, did fun stuff over the weekend. I think I talked about everything but Sunday in the last post. Sunday was when I went with Rachel et al to Sentosa for my second time, this time to see the Underwater World. My camera doesn't take good aquarium pics so I didn't even bother taking out my camera much, but fortunately Rachel's does so I'm going to use her photos on FB for future reference, as well as just these two that I took which show basically how amazingly interactive this particular aquarium is.
Unlike Monterey, which is memorable for having huge exhibits with very true-to-nature environments, Underwater World emphasizes letting you come face to face, or flipper to fin, with all their animals. Above you can see the world's longest traveling aquarium-tube thing, and a little girl feeding the fish in one tank through one of the ingeniously designed access ports. There were also many petting tanks for rays, sharks, etc. Like a typical Asian, I couldn't help but wonder what each of them tasted like as I touched them, but I managed to refrain from sneaking any of them out in my pockets. There was also a nice dolphin show, featuring pink dolphins, as well as those ugly pink apes (migrating from England or the US for the winter months) who stripped off all their clothes to go swimming with the dolphins during the show. Another law that Ryan humbly suggests to the Singapore government for consideration; restrictions against fat, old, and sunburned Caucasians from exposing anything more than than their faces in public... so gross.
That evening we had hotpot, or "steamboat" as it's called around here. Pretty fun, although I will admit that perhaps if Singapore ever has the right weather for eating hotpot, then we are all probably very screwed. Afterwards our kind hosts talked with us about their experiences traveling to Western countries, especially in Europe, where they encountered a large number of guys who hit on them (you know, that epidemic in the West called yellow fever, which I myself probably cannot test for negative). They were funny stories, but by the end I was starting to think that they were just bragging about being young, Asian females who could make so many guys lives miserable. So here I would say in defense of those pink apes, you can toy with them all you want, but make the most of your time because as you approach your metamorphosis into an old Asian lady, when driving they won't even want to share the road with you.
Just talking about that makes me scared of becoming old. What will happen when I can no longer travel the world? When I become slow and start wearing velcro shoes and slippers? Hopefully I won't be rotting somewhere wishing I was able to just go back to places like Zurich and Singapore to relive my youth... omg, what if I even start to miss Houston *gag* if I live elsewhere? OK I'm stopping here before I go into another rant.
Yesterday was the last day of the Lunar New Year's (I've learned to say "Lunar" rather than "Chinese" to be more politically correct, since a lot of other SoutheastAsian nationalities celebrate it as well). I had the last day's dinner with Yaliang and his girlfriend at his apartment. Right now he's taking night-time webcast courses from MIT for his master's, so hardcore. I also learned that last night was the fullest, brightest that the moon has ever been for the last 52 years, and it certainly was very bright.
OK, got to get to work for once. My regards to Mommy, this weekend was her birthday. Haha I still remember missing my flight from Houston last year to get home for her 50th... what a mess I am, need to get in shape in terms of my timeliness, starting NOW.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
What if God has 8 legs and lives in a pineapple tart jar?
If He does, then there's a very good chance that I saw God this morning. When I woke up bright and early to play yet another tennis match, I noticed a huge black thing darting across the floor near my shoes. Without my glasses on, I assumed it was just a damn cockroach, since that's what I'm so used to seeing in my old Houston apartment. But once I could see what it was... I don't know what question hit my neurons first. 1) Wow can I catch it? 2) Am I going to die? 3) Am I seeing God?... All of these and more were all likely candidates within nanoseconds of each other. Anyway, this is what I saw:
Zoomed in
So after about half an hour of emptying one of my pineapple tart jars out and chasing this crazy mofo around my room (he was really quite fast, knows how to use 8 legs well), then finally getting him in the jar, poking some holes... I was running very late for tennis so I had to run right after capture was complete. But when I got back I went out looking for bugs that he could eat. Ants here are pretty huge and juicy, but spiders in my experience are quite shy around ants, so I ended up getting a moth and a jumping spider. Here you can see him in his pineapple jar with his new friends:
OMG!! The monster is taking over NUS!!
Here is the beauty doing his stretching... Wonder if I should take this jar back to Chinatown and ask for a refund?
So know I have to figure out where/when to release him. I kind of like having a roommate for once, even if it could be God Himself, so I might keep him just for tonight. His name is Prince George for now, like my tennis racket, a Prince, and the name of this dorm.
So why could it be God? Lately I've been thinking about God some, since I've met more people here than I expected to meet who were believers in some Supreme Being. The group I mentioned earlier that I went to a Chinese New Year's dinner with also took me to a Buddhist temple where they prayed for a good year, and even went to a fortune reader in the temple. I also met plenty of devout Muslims and Christians, who all seem to take their faith very seriously. Then of course there's Subhash and his humanist fellows who I think in a way represent a belief in a Supreme Being called "Nobody But Us". I guess, just out of my competitive nature, I've asked myself if I could also credit myself with finding God, in this very spider. Then I can also claim my own destiny, by capturing God in this pineapple tart jar. Isn't it better to assume that I know as much about my destiny as God than to hope He will teach me, only to die a waste anyway? If you think this is some metaphor to mankind's power over the "God-machine", it probably is similar, and I'm basically screwed if God dislikes arrogant people. I try to be humble though, believe it or not, at the same time. Yesterday I donated to a nursing home for the poorer old folks, admittedly only after this student at Engineering Faculty chased me about 10 meters along my way to class asking for money for the cause. They gave me a little woven heart-shaped pin thing in appreciation, which I put on my collar, and I noticed that for the rest of the day everyone seemed to be acting much nicer to me. Don't know if that's related to the heart pin, but if this is what God needs from us, just a small token of respect and humility, I can live with that, and perhaps I can even afford it without hating myself.
That's enough RELI 101 for today; if this spider is God, then He certainly is merciful. As I said before, I gave it a moth and another smaller spider to eat, and it only just pounced on the moth, but didn't bite into it with those enormous fangs, just keeping the moth trapped under it's mandibles. Maybe it sensed the moth was poisonous? It is a very brightly colored one; perhaps it is toxic to consume.
Hmmm what else... went out tonight for a big dinner at Singapore's biggest foodcourt, Lau Pa Sat. Tried a bunch of different foods with other exchange students, like sambol stingray, sugarcane juice, Hokkien noodles, cockle omelet, all pretty good. Man I love food so much... I can't wait to eat more tomorrow... This is what I love about Asia and hate about Europe. In Europe I think I rarely felt really full after eating, because food is so expensive and portions are small. Here I never feel hungry, it's fantastic.
Oh and I also cannot wait until one of these days I find another tennis player who BEATS ME. That's right, look at me, the hot stuff, scourge of NUS tennis courts, undefeated to this day, after meeting about 5 different players! Yet I seriously need someone to serve me soon... it was good practice, guys, but it's time to put me down before arrogance overcomes me.
Behold, this is the new flyer that I intend to put out wherever I can around here to call for players who could possibly beat me. Otherwise I will never know the taste of defeat, and the main objective of my whole excursion to this city is to have tried everything from chili crab to stingray, from mangosteens to durian, from sweet victory to bitter loss...
Haha, I might get arrested for this nonsense. But I eagerly await the true champion's call... come on guys, make me break down in tears like Federer at the Aussie Open!
Zoomed in
So after about half an hour of emptying one of my pineapple tart jars out and chasing this crazy mofo around my room (he was really quite fast, knows how to use 8 legs well), then finally getting him in the jar, poking some holes... I was running very late for tennis so I had to run right after capture was complete. But when I got back I went out looking for bugs that he could eat. Ants here are pretty huge and juicy, but spiders in my experience are quite shy around ants, so I ended up getting a moth and a jumping spider. Here you can see him in his pineapple jar with his new friends:
OMG!! The monster is taking over NUS!!
Here is the beauty doing his stretching... Wonder if I should take this jar back to Chinatown and ask for a refund?
So know I have to figure out where/when to release him. I kind of like having a roommate for once, even if it could be God Himself, so I might keep him just for tonight. His name is Prince George for now, like my tennis racket, a Prince, and the name of this dorm.
So why could it be God? Lately I've been thinking about God some, since I've met more people here than I expected to meet who were believers in some Supreme Being. The group I mentioned earlier that I went to a Chinese New Year's dinner with also took me to a Buddhist temple where they prayed for a good year, and even went to a fortune reader in the temple. I also met plenty of devout Muslims and Christians, who all seem to take their faith very seriously. Then of course there's Subhash and his humanist fellows who I think in a way represent a belief in a Supreme Being called "Nobody But Us". I guess, just out of my competitive nature, I've asked myself if I could also credit myself with finding God, in this very spider. Then I can also claim my own destiny, by capturing God in this pineapple tart jar. Isn't it better to assume that I know as much about my destiny as God than to hope He will teach me, only to die a waste anyway? If you think this is some metaphor to mankind's power over the "God-machine", it probably is similar, and I'm basically screwed if God dislikes arrogant people. I try to be humble though, believe it or not, at the same time. Yesterday I donated to a nursing home for the poorer old folks, admittedly only after this student at Engineering Faculty chased me about 10 meters along my way to class asking for money for the cause. They gave me a little woven heart-shaped pin thing in appreciation, which I put on my collar, and I noticed that for the rest of the day everyone seemed to be acting much nicer to me. Don't know if that's related to the heart pin, but if this is what God needs from us, just a small token of respect and humility, I can live with that, and perhaps I can even afford it without hating myself.
That's enough RELI 101 for today; if this spider is God, then He certainly is merciful. As I said before, I gave it a moth and another smaller spider to eat, and it only just pounced on the moth, but didn't bite into it with those enormous fangs, just keeping the moth trapped under it's mandibles. Maybe it sensed the moth was poisonous? It is a very brightly colored one; perhaps it is toxic to consume.
Hmmm what else... went out tonight for a big dinner at Singapore's biggest foodcourt, Lau Pa Sat. Tried a bunch of different foods with other exchange students, like sambol stingray, sugarcane juice, Hokkien noodles, cockle omelet, all pretty good. Man I love food so much... I can't wait to eat more tomorrow... This is what I love about Asia and hate about Europe. In Europe I think I rarely felt really full after eating, because food is so expensive and portions are small. Here I never feel hungry, it's fantastic.
Oh and I also cannot wait until one of these days I find another tennis player who BEATS ME. That's right, look at me, the hot stuff, scourge of NUS tennis courts, undefeated to this day, after meeting about 5 different players! Yet I seriously need someone to serve me soon... it was good practice, guys, but it's time to put me down before arrogance overcomes me.
Behold, this is the new flyer that I intend to put out wherever I can around here to call for players who could possibly beat me. Otherwise I will never know the taste of defeat, and the main objective of my whole excursion to this city is to have tried everything from chili crab to stingray, from mangosteens to durian, from sweet victory to bitter loss...
ATTENTION:
I’ve yet to be destroyed in
tennis. Are YOU up to the
challenge?
Ryan Pei
我不败。如果你能打败我的网
球，你必须挑战我!
貝世雄
SMS: 8438 0836
Haha, I might get arrested for this nonsense. But I eagerly await the true champion's call... come on guys, make me break down in tears like Federer at the Aussie Open!
Tuesday, February 3, 2009
Fried Rice Paradise
While waiting for the Prince George River to ebb from the hallway (every so often the cleaning ladies will literally flood the hallway with water that runs like a freaking river past all our rooms, and I come out of my room and I see this woman standing in rubber boots in the rushing current, and she motions to me to keep to the high ground until the floods subside, so I'm trapped in here until then), I'll reflect on my week so far.
First off, the title of this post comes from an actual song "Fried Rice Paradise", which is currently stuck in my head unfortunately. It's sort of the pop-anthem of Singapore from a while ago. On YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FUYfjwfKPuQ&feature=related
Haha, I like the last guy's comment on the video. Apparently this was considered a controversial song because of how colloquial the language is, using the Mandarin/English mix that is commonly heard around here, called "Singlish", and the government even banned this song from playing on the radios for a while, because they wanted the population to learn only proper English and proper Mandarin, not the interracial bastard child of both. I just admire the dude's pants... reminds me of Shamoor Anis at the 80s party in his brightest shade of teal.
OH SHIT THERE'S A JUMPING SPIDER ON MY WALL RIGHT NOW!!! :) :) :)
I'm very excited now because my new best friend (this jumping spider) is going around gobbling up these damn ants that keep coming into my room. He is quite voracious, I must say, reminds me of Sim Ant the old game. But I'm glad he's on my side because these stupid ants just don't get it... they come in everyday by the hundreds for just some tiny crumb on the floor, and I just squish them with my foot and they subsequently die by the hundreds as well. So their cost-benefit ratio is terrible, considering how many casualties they suffer for just a bit of food smaller than they are. But they refuse to learn and keep coming, in even greater numbers each day. I'm surprised I haven't yet wiped out their colony, they must have multiple queens or something.
OK now about Singapore again... Haven't learned much that's new, but did go to dinner the day before yesterday with a group of native guys who went to one of NUS's many "Overseas Colleges" for a summer internship. This particular group went to Silicon Valley... and they loved it haha. They can't wait to go back, claiming the working atmosphere there is much better for free-thinking, entrepreneurial-minded people than Singapore. Not to mention the climate. Just hearing them reminisce about Silicon Valley prompted me to do the same... oh California, how I miss you my beautiful girl, even though I constantly make fun of your eccentricities...
These guys were really nice to me though, and they took me to a traditional Chinese New Year's dinner that started off with a weird dish that I have never seen before, but is apparently very traditional for this time of year and quite popular in Singapore. It's called "yusheng", which literally means both "raw fish" and "abundance" (in Chinese you have many words that sound exactly the same, called homophones, and this is one example). Basically, it's a mixture of every ingredient that Chinese find particularly auspicious... and I mean everything. When it arrived at our table, I could not recognize anything on the plate. It literally looked like some kind of salad that resulted from the crash landing of a rainbow. And on top of that, the waitress came back with more stuff in bowls that she sprinkled on top while telling us what each of those ingredients represented, such as five spice powder for good luck, kumquat honey for romance (as a group of mostly single guys, we could have used that for sure), plum sauce for wealth, shrimp crackers for something else, etc, etc... I can't even name everything that went into this, but it's something like jellyfish, daikon radish, white ginger, red ginger, peanuts, crackers, bunch of different sauces, carrots, peppers, orange peel, and of course, raw fish... and more. I was very hesitant at first to try it, but after we all mixed it up together with our chopsticks, shouting "good luck" in Chinese as we did, each of us dug out a portion and consumed. It was actually delicious. We ate it all very fast, all the different flavors actually combined extremely well, I was impressed. Oh wiki actually has a good article on this stuff, so look up "yusheng" if you want some better explanation.
Anyway, those guys were really cool and I hope to hang out with them again soon. Or if they come back to Silicon Valley I'd be happy to help them with a "start-up" plan... for a restaurant that may introduce this delicacy to us back home haha.
Ok, what else? Anything? What about this riddle that I found on the top of my bubble tea yesterday, and that I still can't figure out... Every cup of my bubble tea comes with some riddle written on the top in Chinese, which I never bothered to read until now... this one is quite strange and I think I'm missing a lot in translation. I reads something like "Meeting a long feather's mother is called what?... Answer: Bird, because "jiang" (JOHN) mother bird". Wtf... Next time I'm just going to enjoy my tea without giving myself a brain hemorrhage.
Played more tennis as usual, and even went swimming after today's match, as my opponent insisted we go try the pool. I didn't bring a bathing suit... so he lent me one of his. Bad news, he was European (French), so of course the suit is one of those skimpy little speedos... all I can say is, if you get one of these make sure you are in a country where nobody cares. In the US I would have rather killed myself than show up to the pool in that, but here it was alright. And no, no photos, thank you very much for asking, though. It was a nice swim regardless, and afterwords I introduced him to sushi, which he never had before. He actually liked it, I guess you can always count on the French for good taste in food. I was also surprised how many French words in food I remembered, as I could translate some of the different fishes, like "thon" for tuna. Oh, and PS, sushi here is really cheap and still quite good. So skip Japan and just go to Singapore.
Ok I think the floods have finally subsided, so I may once again stroll gallantly down the hall like a conquering hero... Now I'm headed for a English linguistics experiment that Rachel said she got $10 from, woot for $$$.
Cheers!
First off, the title of this post comes from an actual song "Fried Rice Paradise", which is currently stuck in my head unfortunately. It's sort of the pop-anthem of Singapore from a while ago. On YouTube:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=FUYfjwfKPuQ&feature=related
Haha, I like the last guy's comment on the video. Apparently this was considered a controversial song because of how colloquial the language is, using the Mandarin/English mix that is commonly heard around here, called "Singlish", and the government even banned this song from playing on the radios for a while, because they wanted the population to learn only proper English and proper Mandarin, not the interracial bastard child of both. I just admire the dude's pants... reminds me of Shamoor Anis at the 80s party in his brightest shade of teal.
OH SHIT THERE'S A JUMPING SPIDER ON MY WALL RIGHT NOW!!! :) :) :)
I'm very excited now because my new best friend (this jumping spider) is going around gobbling up these damn ants that keep coming into my room. He is quite voracious, I must say, reminds me of Sim Ant the old game. But I'm glad he's on my side because these stupid ants just don't get it... they come in everyday by the hundreds for just some tiny crumb on the floor, and I just squish them with my foot and they subsequently die by the hundreds as well. So their cost-benefit ratio is terrible, considering how many casualties they suffer for just a bit of food smaller than they are. But they refuse to learn and keep coming, in even greater numbers each day. I'm surprised I haven't yet wiped out their colony, they must have multiple queens or something.
OK now about Singapore again... Haven't learned much that's new, but did go to dinner the day before yesterday with a group of native guys who went to one of NUS's many "Overseas Colleges" for a summer internship. This particular group went to Silicon Valley... and they loved it haha. They can't wait to go back, claiming the working atmosphere there is much better for free-thinking, entrepreneurial-minded people than Singapore. Not to mention the climate. Just hearing them reminisce about Silicon Valley prompted me to do the same... oh California, how I miss you my beautiful girl, even though I constantly make fun of your eccentricities...
These guys were really nice to me though, and they took me to a traditional Chinese New Year's dinner that started off with a weird dish that I have never seen before, but is apparently very traditional for this time of year and quite popular in Singapore. It's called "yusheng", which literally means both "raw fish" and "abundance" (in Chinese you have many words that sound exactly the same, called homophones, and this is one example). Basically, it's a mixture of every ingredient that Chinese find particularly auspicious... and I mean everything. When it arrived at our table, I could not recognize anything on the plate. It literally looked like some kind of salad that resulted from the crash landing of a rainbow. And on top of that, the waitress came back with more stuff in bowls that she sprinkled on top while telling us what each of those ingredients represented, such as five spice powder for good luck, kumquat honey for romance (as a group of mostly single guys, we could have used that for sure), plum sauce for wealth, shrimp crackers for something else, etc, etc... I can't even name everything that went into this, but it's something like jellyfish, daikon radish, white ginger, red ginger, peanuts, crackers, bunch of different sauces, carrots, peppers, orange peel, and of course, raw fish... and more. I was very hesitant at first to try it, but after we all mixed it up together with our chopsticks, shouting "good luck" in Chinese as we did, each of us dug out a portion and consumed. It was actually delicious. We ate it all very fast, all the different flavors actually combined extremely well, I was impressed. Oh wiki actually has a good article on this stuff, so look up "yusheng" if you want some better explanation.
Anyway, those guys were really cool and I hope to hang out with them again soon. Or if they come back to Silicon Valley I'd be happy to help them with a "start-up" plan... for a restaurant that may introduce this delicacy to us back home haha.
Ok, what else? Anything? What about this riddle that I found on the top of my bubble tea yesterday, and that I still can't figure out... Every cup of my bubble tea comes with some riddle written on the top in Chinese, which I never bothered to read until now... this one is quite strange and I think I'm missing a lot in translation. I reads something like "Meeting a long feather's mother is called what?... Answer: Bird, because "jiang" (JOHN) mother bird". Wtf... Next time I'm just going to enjoy my tea without giving myself a brain hemorrhage.
Played more tennis as usual, and even went swimming after today's match, as my opponent insisted we go try the pool. I didn't bring a bathing suit... so he lent me one of his. Bad news, he was European (French), so of course the suit is one of those skimpy little speedos... all I can say is, if you get one of these make sure you are in a country where nobody cares. In the US I would have rather killed myself than show up to the pool in that, but here it was alright. And no, no photos, thank you very much for asking, though. It was a nice swim regardless, and afterwords I introduced him to sushi, which he never had before. He actually liked it, I guess you can always count on the French for good taste in food. I was also surprised how many French words in food I remembered, as I could translate some of the different fishes, like "thon" for tuna. Oh, and PS, sushi here is really cheap and still quite good. So skip Japan and just go to Singapore.
Ok I think the floods have finally subsided, so I may once again stroll gallantly down the hall like a conquering hero... Now I'm headed for a English linguistics experiment that Rachel said she got $10 from, woot for $$$.
Cheers!
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