Taboo Taboo

We had a game of Taboo a few nights ago in Laws Hall and it kind of reminded me of the last time I played Taboo at Bintan a year and a half ago. It's bound to turn funny at some point in time. Especially with five french girls.



And yesterday night both Eveline and I went to an Asian Chinese hot-pot gathering. I finally met the famous Lloyd Chia, whom I have heard so much about from Adeline (who came to Mizzou last year). Lloyd has been the sole representative of our little red dot in Mizzou until his girlfriend, Valerie, came recently to do her Masters in the J-Sch. Lloyd is a PhD student in sociology and has been here for the past two and a half years. And he has a car. Wheee. :)

Majulah Singapura!

Check out the 3 siao-kias from Russia, Singapore(with double chin) and France

First week of school

First week of school here in Mizzou, and I am already stressing out. Whoever said that American students are slack must be slackers themselves. Because it is simply not true. Well at least for the classes that I am taking here. So far, I've had to read about 50 pages of readings and have three papers due next week and one test next week and have to fight to participate during class discussions because if you don't then eveyone else will (it's 20%-30% of the entire semester grade so I have to...). And lecture really means lecture here. There are so many ideas and opinions flowing around during the lecture that you really have to pay attention in order to follow them. It's like Cherian George's journalism class back in CS, but 3 times more intensive because almost everyone is talking one after the other. Hopefully I will get used to all these. And for my International Journalism we get spot quizzes every week on current international news so I have to read all these:

Clockwise from top left: The New York Times (for international news), USA Today (for the nation's domestic news), Columbia Missourian (for local news), and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (for regional, state news). Thank God they are FREE! But I pity the cleaning lady who clears the dustbin outside everyday.

The professor of this class visit and lectured at WKWSCI 5 or 6 years ago and it was amusing to hear him refer to the dean of WKWSCI "Peng Hwa". He's a cool, albeit old, professor.

The best thing about being in the Journalism School in Missouri is that although it may be situated in a small town, the world of journalism comes right to the doorstep. We have alot of exciting events lined up, including the Pictures of the Year Award (which is the world's first photojournalism award), and you are sure to know that Heath Ledger died (omg) like one hour after it happened. So Columbia is freaking ulu, but important enough in the journalism world.

And if you haven't read Eveline's blog, books here are really expensive. So far I've spent SGD200 just on books alone. And that is only because I didn't have to buy some other books that are really really expensive. Like SGD100 per book. Imagine if I have to buy all of them. I think I will spent at least SGD500 just on books alone if I have to. So I'm counting my lucky stars.

I've just bought my ticket to a basketball match of the Mizzou Tigers against Nebraska next Wednesday. I plan to watch all the American sporting events in Mizzou at least once each. Too bad the American football season is over, but the baseball season is starting in Spring.

Some random pictures for you all, but nothing fantastic since it's still freaking cold here (it was -13 degrees C this morning).

My roomie's current love: she just bought it two days ago. For USD1200.

What I had for breakfast. Balance is the key.

Ciao Bella.

Dialogues of the week

I woke up this morning to a knock on my door.


"Do you have an egg?"

"Huh?"

"An egg, E-G-G."

"No, I don't think so. Sorry."


And then about an hour later when I am more awake and coming back into my room from the computer lab:


"It's done."

"What?"

And then I saw this.

It's an apple pie that Yuko baked for a girl called Mandy from our level, whose birthday is today. I think she was trying to find an egg to glaze the pie. How sweet.

And I have an announcement to make. I HAVE FINALLY EXERCISED! I went to the Rec Centre yesterday to play table tennis with Lindsey and her boyfriend Kevin. I won all the matches that we played except one which I lost to Lindsey. Which was kind of weird, considering that Kevin was supposed to be the better player between the two of them. I think it's because Lindsey plays like the Forrest Gump style, with just the wooden bat and no rubber and she just whack the ball back to her opponent really fast. Kinda unorthodox. I wasn't expecting the people here to play table tennis so I am quite surprised to fun a few people here actually do. Just not the competitive kind that I used to do back in Singapore. I'm glad that I brought my bat along.

And I am glad that I brought my swimming costume along as well! I went swimming today with Cecile and then went to the jacuzzi pool for awhile. But I felt quite lousy about myself when I saw how fast the other Americans were swimming at the Olympic-sized pool. Someone told me that Michael Phelps once swam in that same pool during a swimming meet here a few years ago. My timing sucked as well, but I guess it's from all that deep-fried food. Never mind, I shall try harder next time.

Anyway, it's very interesting to hear so many different accents being spoken here in my hall. Simple words like Harry Potter, Orang Utan and Hansel and Gretel can be said in so many ways that it becomes incomprehensible to some. For eg:

Scenario 1

Lindsey: You read Harry Podder?

Cecile: What? I don't understand.

Me: Harry Pot-TER.

Cecile: AH, OUI! Air-hee Potteh!

Scenario 2

Me: Yeah we have some Orang Utans in the Singapore Zoo.

Lindsey: Cool! You have Oreng Utens?

Melissa (who is also French): Oh! Ohang Utan!

Scenario 3

Lindsey: So have you heard of the fairytale Hensel and Gredel?

Jan (pronounced YAAN, he is German): Vat?

Eveline: Hensel and Gre-TAL.

Jan: Ah, Ja! HAAN-SELL und GRRRE-TELL!

Aurelia (who is also French): Oui! Aann-sell et Ghey-tell!

Sometimes it's just hilarious talking to once another. But then, that's what makes our days here more interesting. And I have been revising my French with the French girls. So yay to me.

Anyway, Dobbs, the dining hall beside my hall, is finally opened. So I have been going there to eat since then. The food there is slightly better. On some days they even have rice. Which is really fantastic for me, even though it's not the best rice I have eaten. We shall see when the term progresses.

School starts tomorrow, and the course syllabus looks very scary. Like 15 assignments and 5 books to read and class discussion marks. I am starting to feel stressed. Luckily the final exam is like 20% of the entire course grade. I guess people here do not do last minute mugging. Great.

And that is all I have to say for today. Not many pictures recently, since it is always freezing nowadays and there is only a limit to what I can take inside Laws Hall. But my photojournalism class starts tomorrow, so plenty of opportunities to take pictures then. How lovely. Have a good week then!

PS: And I just found out that KT Tunstall is going to Singapore in March! Drats! Why do I always miss the good things in life? Sigh...

Campus Tour and stuff videos

Mizzou Tour Part 1



Note: Spencer is one of Eveline's ambassador at the journalism school who offered us exchange students a ride to and from Walmart in his car.


Mizzou Tour Part 2




Hope it's not too long. School starts on tuesday, so these may be the last videos I can possibly do in a long time. Enjoy!

One week in Mizzou

We had our journalism-school orientation yesterday and I've finally settled my classes that I will be taking this semester. They are:

1) Fundamentals of Photojournalism
2) International Journalism

3) Cross-Cultural Journalism

4) Introduction to British Literature

I'm pretty satisfied with these courses, except for the timetable, but then again, my timetables have always sucked so I'm numbed to them already. Now I just hope Nikki Draper approves some of my course matches. Otherwise you'll see me chionging special sem when I come back in June.

We also went Walmart-shopping today and I finally got some cutlery to eat my foodstuff. And last night Eveline, me and the French girl Cecile went to watch a gymnastics match called Pink Out featuring the Mizzou Tigers against the Iowa State Cyclones. It's kinda funny to hear the Star-Sprangled Banner sung in a small competition like this. Mizzou won by the way.

Anyway, yesterday night was by far the coldest night here for me in Columbia. I think it went to -10 degrees C or more last night while we were walking back from watching the gymnastics match. I nearly frozed my nose off while walking and I have this theory that Asian noses are not suited for cold weather because they are flatter and the chilly wind is more likley to go into the nostrils. Cecile just hooted out loudly when I told her that. But I think it's true, since it always takes me like 10 minutes after I get into dorm to defreeze my nose and get it to start breathing again.

And this morning was freezing as well, so I don't really feel like going out unless I really have to. Hence I am here bumming around the room and doing nothing except slacking. Maybe I'll do a video if I feel ambitious, but maybe I'll just watch the tennis Aussie Open on tv, since my roomie's away to Jefferson City for the weekend until tomorrow. Alright, I am supposed to post some photos of the gymnastics match, so I am going to, although they are not of good enough quality to see the light of the day for me...

It cost us 3 dollars for a ticket, which was cheaper since Cecile got some discount coupons from somewhere.

The Mizzou gym team at work

Eveline and Cecile enjoying the match

Truman the Mizzou mascot. He's named after the US President Truman since he was from Missouri. I think. And the people are known as the Mizzou Tigers here. Which is weird, considering they don't even have tigers here in Missouri.

Lastly, just to give you an idea of how big tigers are in Mizzou. This is my ID card:

Go ahead, laugh all you want. I don't really care.

Scenes of Mizzou and Columbia

We had a campus tour this morning, and a few of us international exchange students also took the bus to Columbia Mall for some shopping. So here are the sights of Mizzou and Columbia.

The famous columns of Mizzou near Jesse Hall

Cecile (France), Anni (Finland) and Eunice (UK)

Eunice trying to do the tourist thing

U do?

All the french girls got excited at seeing the famous American school bus, which was kinda funny

I think one thing almost all the international students agree to is that the food in America really sux. Especially the French girls. It's very amusing the see Cecile's face screw up in pure agony when she has to eat fast food. I think me and Eveline find the food here least sucky. Which says alot about how americanised Singapore has become.

Alright, J-sch orientation tomorrow, so more exciting stuff coming along the way.

Yay! It's up at last!

Well it took a shorter time than expected. But it's up. Not the best quality though, but enough to see what I was up to this week in Mizzou.

And Yuko made all the pottery and ceramics and Gyozas featured in the video. And the dustbin is always full in Yuko and Rachel's room. Amazing stuff.

And I've met more people who have moved in or moved back in Laws Hall today. Two Americans, including the student advisor Lindsey who tells me that she plays table tennis as well, one French girl and another girl from Finland. We're getting more international here. How exciting.

All around the world

We had our international student orientation yesterday and it was pretty informative, talking about immigration, health and taxes. We also met many people from all over the world, including Kenya, UK, France, Korea, Mexico and two fellow Singaporeans. It's definitely different from the kind of orientation that NTU schools and halls do every year. We were treated to some bluegrass music from the director of the International Centre and his family during lunch at the orientation.

I don't really have any decent pictures to post here since everyone kinda runs away the moment I whip out my Godzilla-sized D80. So I whipped out my video camera instead. But since it's more work extracting videos than photos you'll have to wait for me to edit and post them up. Hopefully it should be up on YouTube by the end of this week. If you want more pictures, just pop over to Eveline's blog.

We also braved the cold last night and went to the Heidelberg restaurant, with my roomie and Yuko, who lives next door to me.

Clockwise from me: Yuko, Eveline, I dunno his name, Ibrahim, Chris and AM at Heidelberg.

And this is Yuko, the Japanese cooking goddess who cooks everything and owns the kitchen downstairs. She also likes to walk around while brushing her teeth. I think I should learn some dishes from her. And she has RICE!!! And thai curry! And Oyster Sauce!

The Gyozas she made, which was delicious. Her American roommate Rachel is very lucky to have her. But then again, Rachel's pretty nice as well.

I have a hilarious video of Olivia aka Suk Kyung (sorry I dunno the spelling of her name), who is a Korean living near us as well. I think I have finally met a match for Hui Lin's witchy laughter. After all these years and halfway round the world no less...

Alright, videos will be up asap. In the meantime, for those in Hall 6, enjoy the last remaining IHG matches!

Dorm Life

There are many words that the Americans use that are different from what we use in Singapore. Lift=Elevator, Petrol=Gas, Hall=Dorm, Canteen=Dining Hall, etc. And I've met more people here since I arrived, including two Japanese, a Korean, a PRC, a Romanian, two Americans (one of whom really reminded me of Yeo Ngee Leng...).

The people here are friendlier than Singaporeans, as strangers who walk down the street will smile and say hello to you. I think in Singapore if you do that people will look back at you strangely. I think not all American towns are like that, maybe only the mid-western towns (where Mizzou is located) and there are fewer people and the pace of life slower.

Eveline and I went out hunting for food this afternoon and we nearly froze while walking to the Mexican place where we had pizza. It was around -1 degrees C and we with all out long coats, beanies, scarf and gloves we looked like some suaku kias walking around Mizzou. Everyone else seems to be dressed so causually even when out in the cold. They even play american football outside in the freezing weather dressed in what we usually wear in Singapore when playing sports!

I'll stop the babbling here and let the pictures start speaking for themselves.

I challenge all the fellow shorties in Singapore to get up this bed without climbing the two ends of the bed!

The dining hall, although it's closed for the winter break. I braved the cold this morning to talk this picture. It was snowing abit the night before.

Look at the size of their American football field! I heard their SRC is one of the best in the area, complete with two Olympic size pools and tonnes of jacuzzis and suanas inside. I shall try it out soon...hee...

We also saw some squrriels along the way back from our pizza lunch but it was too cold to take out my D80 to take pictures. Eveline couldn't even keep her head up to enjoy the sights of Mizzou as she was too busy braving the cold wind against her face. Oh well, I'll try when the weather gets warmer. Which I hope is soon.

It's 5:38 p.m and the sky is as dark as 8p.m. in Singapore and I feel very sleepy. Still jet-lagged...sianz...

From Kampung NTU to Ulu Smalltown Columbia

Yes, Eveline and I have finally arrived in Columbia, Missouri last night. After three flights, with delays, endless customs and one bus ride no less. But we are finally here. We stayed at a hotel last night and moved into our dorms at last this afternoon. The weather’s here quite nice, around 5 degrees C, though Eveline thinks it’s cold. The irony is that she wants it to snow while I don’t (there was snow in Minneapolis but we didn’t go out of the airport). I think it will be a hassle to walk around with snow everywhere. Some pictures for you then.

I've travelled far and long to get here man

Scenes from the hotel

And my roommate's a Romanian called Ana Maria. There's not much people around here yet, since the halls only opens officially next week. Here's my contact details. Letters, presents, and the odd foodstuff from Singapore are very welcomed.

213B Laws Hall

University of Missouri-Columbia

1005 Maryland Avenue

Columbia, MO 65201-5101

USA

More pictures to come when I feel like braving the cold outside to take some. Have a good semester everyone!

PS: Columbia is slower than Singapore by 14 hours. So 10pm in Singapore is 8am in Columbia on the same day. Understood?

Good.

And that has made all the difference

If you're wondering where I got my inspiration for the blog title from, here's some Frost for you, since most of you (except maybe for a few others), do not know that Frost is actually one of my favourite poet(others being Wordsworth, Kipling and Dylan Thomas).

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth.

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same.

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less travelled by,
And that has made all the difference.


A few hours from my departure to Mizzou, a sense of anticipation? Not really. More like apprehension. Maybe when I get there then the excitement will follow. But like Miss Lee Hoon proclaimed on Monday, Murphy is not my friend. So hopefully but choosing to take the road less travelled by, it would make all the difference to me.

"There is lace at stake!"

I know this has got nothing to do with Mizzou, but this is what comes out of hanging around the house for the past few days. Below is the reason why I love to read Victorian literature, especially Austen, Gaskell and Eliot, and one of the reasons why I love the BBC. An excerpt of the new BBC miniseries, Cranford by Elizabeth Gaskell. Imelda Staunton is the perfect person to play Miss Pole in Cranford, even better than her role as Umbridge in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. Fast forward to 3:21 for that priceless line. Ha!



And I'm also currently watching the new BBC adaptation of Austen's Sense and Sensibility. I must say it's quite different from Lee Ang's version starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. But it looks promising so far.

Alright, back to my last minute packing then.

Halfway Round The World

My very-complicated and oh-so-tiring flight plan (some whom already knew):

Fri, Jan 11

Part 1
Flight: NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 0006
From: SINGAPORE, SINGAPORE (SIN)
Departs: 6:00am
To: TOKYO NARITA, JAPAN (NRT)
Arrives: 1:45pm
Duration: 6 hours and 45 minutes
Class: Economy
Aircraft: AIRBUS INDUSTRIE A332 JET
Meal: Breakfast , Snack
Mileage: 3311

Part 2
Flight: NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 0020
From: TOKYO NARITA, JAPAN (NRT)
Departs: 3:00pm
To: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP)
Arrives: 10:55am
Duration: 10 hours and 55 minutes
Class: Economy
Aircraft: BOEING 747 JET
Meal: Dinner , Breakfast
Mileage: 5953

Part 3
Flight: NORTHWEST AIRLINES, NW 5646 Operated by NORTHWEST AIRLINK
From: MINNEAPOLIS ST PL, MN (MSP)
Departs: 2:25pm
To: KANSAS CITY INTL, MO (MCI)
Arrives: 3:57pm
Duration: 1 hour and 32 minutes
Class: Economy
Aircraft: CRJ-CANADAIR REGIONAL JET (this is a smaller aircraft)
Meal: None
Mileage: 394

Part 4
Take a 2-hour bus ride from Kansas City in Missouri to the city of Columbia, where Mizzou is located. Total journey time, including transit and waiting time, is around 25 hours. *Faints*

Will be back in sunny Singapore on the 1st of Jun. See y'all then.

Shots of the day

Fresh off my D80:

Captain Ben aka polo god calmly taking his shot at the goal. With one eye closed no less.

Second-in-command Kim Hock aka Kimmy with a more "intense" look.

And that sums up the IHG water polo match highlights for the day. We trashed Hall 7 with a score of 8-0.

I love my D80.

It's Missouri, not Misery!

First post, so I thought I will start by telling everyone where Missouri is located on the map of the USA, since no one seems to know where it is. It's ulu I know, but the USA is not just made up of New York, LA and Florida. Click on the map to enlarge.


And The University of Missouri-Columbia aka Mizzou is at Columbia in Missouri. Makes sense right?

Another piece of news. I finally bought my Nikon D80. Just trying to show off here.

More photos to come when I start shooting. In the meantime, enjoy the holidays while it's still here.

And I am down with flu even after taking a flu jab recently.