Reality

Sometimes when you're really stressed out from work or anything along that line, try reading some online forums or whatnot. It really helps. And reading some (or rather a lot of) comments about some poly kid complaining about being "looked down" at the NUS open house is really entertaining. Some times I don't really know what these netizens want to achieve by posting such posts online. And I'm actually quite amazed by their ability to connect everything they can possibly think of (honestly, I never ever thought that it could stretch that far! Haha), and make baseless and biased comments. No I'm no offended in any way despite being an NUS student. In fact, I just find these kids ridiculously childish. Ok not gonna comment anymore lest I get shot down by those attention-seeking netizens. But one last comment, I feel that with the social media to hide their real identities, the people today are overly-vocal for their own good, and sometimes this results in thoughtless expressions. Really funny read. =P

Lab reports, projects and tutorials. That basically sums up my past week or so. Need to put in the extra effort, with exams looming around the corner. Today I received an email from Grenoble INP which attached my official acceptance document for my summer programme. Settled all the admin stuff like accommodation and whatnot. So excited to go over in June. But before that, need to study real hard this time. No time for complacency. Jiayou! =D

Friday Night...

Had dinner with 01 peeps! Really awesome dinner. Good food, fun and just the perfect combination to get all the frustrations, stress and everything negative out of my mind. Ok, at least for the entire night, I felt really happy laughing my heart out. Haha. Yup, that's 01. There's always endless stuff to talk (and more importantly laugh) about. Really makes me remember that there's so much more to work in life. I really treasure our friendship over the years. =D

Not sure why, but for the couple of weeks, I have been feeling really weird. Not sure exactly what's bothering me though. Lots of good things happened to me the last week or so, but somehow, I'm not as happy as I thought I would be. France summer programme settled. Holland exchange programme settled. Module mapping approved. Everything seems to be going so smoothly. But I still feel quite down. Strange. Academics? Maybe. Stress? Definitely. But I'm quite used to them already. I don't think those are making me feel what I'm feeling. Really don't know how to put it. I Just hope that things will get a little better the next couple of days.

Tokyo!

Another good news today. Got a call from NUS IRO asking me to go for an interview for the IARU summer programme at the University of Tokyo. Wow. Good news really come back to back, one after another. Really awesome way to end a pretty sad week actually. But yea, not really expecting much. But if I get this summer programme too, my summer break will be totally used up. And it will be pretty exciting actually. Fly to France at the start of June. Then fly directly from France to Tokyo at the start of July. And finally fly back from Tokyo to Singapore near end of July. Then TADAH! Back to NUS. LOL! Really scary actually. But yea, will keep a positive attitude towards it! =D

Anyway today Tokyo got hit really badly by a magnitude 8.9 earthquake. 8.9! It's damn scary. And it was accompanied by after shocks and tsunamis. Really pray hard for the Japanese. With this massive earthquake, rebuilding the nation will really take quite some time. But most importantly, I hope the people are fine! And depending on the situation, going to the University of Tokyo may not be the best of ideas this year. But I shall continue to monitor the situation and see if it's suitable to go.

Ok now back to typing/scanning/printing my application stuff for the DUO-Singapore Exchange Award. DAMN SIAN. But the extra cash would really come in handy when I go for my SEP in Holland! Type, type type away...

Good News!

Yesterday was a day of good news and more good news! Haha. First up was an offer from IRO to exchange at TU Delft, the Netherlands, in year 2 semester 2.

Yeps, I really never expected that coz my CAP for my first semester wasn't that good. And actually it wasn't my first choice, coz I thought that putting a more average university (KTH) as my first choice would at least secure me a place. So put TU Delft as second choice. Guess I was wrong, but in an even more awesome way! Yea, I'm really thankful for the place. So excited to go to the Netherlands and I get to study things I like, like Nuclear Engineering and Petroleum Engineering.

Then came another email.. I was offered a place at Summer School at Grenoble INP - Minatec, France, to study Nanotechnology!

Studying Nanotechnology at the European Nanotechnology Centre! Omg it's like a dream come true man! Before this, I was still super worried coz the course is so competitive and the number of places seem so limited! But I must really thank Prof Quek for the letter of recommendation! It really helps! So all of a sudden, everything seem to fall into place. All the endless nights of typing CV, filling in application forms and emailing finally paid off. Actually I also applied to University of Tokyo to study Nanotechnology under the IARU Summer Programme. If I get it my entire summer will be GONE. Haha. But actually I don't put much hope into that, coz it's even more competitive and it's not worth the cost and credits. But anyway, omg so exciting!

I am really thankful to my parents for being ever so supportive in everything I do. After my A levels, when I wanted to study overseas, they were so supportive of me. I got the offers I wanted but didn't get the scholarship I wanted. But even without a scholarship, they were willing to fork out the huge sum of money to fund my overseas education. And as such, I felt that it's just not right to use their money, and also that NUS is a good enough university for me. Yeps, so this is why I stayed back at NUS. But I'm not regretting my decision one bit. I think that it's a good choice - actually I got the better deal staying. Because of this, I think my parents are now even more supportive of me going overseas for anything. When I told them that I wanted to try something different, like going OCIP last semester break, they just ask me to go for it. And when I told them that I wanted to do summer programmes/student exchange, they just asked me to apply and if I get it, go for it. Really grateful to my parents.

But as excited as I may be, there's still the part of me that's actually quite scared. But then again, who wouldn't be? Leaving home and going to a foreign land for pretty extended periods, and not knowing their language. All the familiarity gone. There will definitely be the culture shock, but I guess it's part and parcel of growing up. So I'm just gonna take everything in my stride and just believe that everything will turn out fine. Hope that I can become a better person through all these experiences.

Suddenly, the next year or so seem so exciting! =D

Just some thoughts...

Yeps, it's halfway through the mid terms and I know I should be studying. But I really need to take some time to let off some steam. I'm actually feeling quite frustrated. Ok, specifically to my mid terms thus far. I can confidently say that I prepared decently this time (unlike last semester where I was still blur like anything). CN2125's good coz it's really do-able. Really. Haha. But it ends there. I don't know what got into me, but I am so damn freaking blur. Seriously. Take CN3124 for instance. I can write down the correct equation and correctly find all the parameters. But in the end, I still couldn't write down the answer. I don't know what had gotten into me. Damn it man. Oh and I am also capable of integrating super duper simple equations wrongly. Gosh. This is damn freaking irritating. And here comes MLE1101. Multiple choice. I always got the habit of changing my right answers to wrong ones. And once again, I did it. Twice. Really sian. For this semester, I really love what I'm studying. CN3124 and 2125 is a continuation from Fluid Mechanics, which is my favourite. All the reactor design in CN2116 is really interesting too (but is proving to be a real challenge to my intelligence). MA and MLE are also pretty nice modules. And because I enjoy these topics, I studied so hard for them. But at the end of the day, I'm still beaten by my own carelessness. 功亏一篑.

I should really find a way to curb my carelessness. Anyone has any suggestions (especially for MCQ)?

Now I'm left with MA1506 and CN2116 for this round of mid-terms. Please please stop all the carelessness. =(