Into the 2nd week at NUS

Status update. End of week 2 of school.. and my timetable and modules are still not confirmed! Yes it's bad. I have been attending more lectures than I should be attending over the course of the week. Haha. Yes and I'm prepared to take 7 modules this semester, if I want to avoid the "W" grade in my transcript. So irritating lah. The faculty is still deciding whether or not to allow me to do CN2122 without MA1505 and MA1506. Initially, I asked my mentor and he said he couldn't allow me to do that as there are too many pre-requisites that have not been satisfied. Then Jiashen and I appealed, and the ChBE department said they will go with my mentor's decision. And so I chose to respect the department's decision. Then suddenly this week, Prof Quek told me that he's in the midst of asking the Dean of Engineering to specially exempt us from the pre-requisites and that we read up the necessary Math ourselves to make up for it. I was like "?!" Coz I have already taken up 6 modules this semester and I have never ever embraced the idea of taking up 7 modules. Oh well, Prof Quek said that the Dean gave him a verbal agreement. But since there's no black and white yet, he asked us not to do anything first, just crash the lectures. So there we went, crashing CN2122 lectures and in the process missing my GEK1527 lecture. So if I were to take up CN2122 I would probably drop GEK1527. All still tentative at the moment.

Ok so lectures this week has been decent. Econs is as per normal crappy. But I'm loving Thermodynamics more and more already! So exciting isn't it! Haha. Sounds psychotic but yes I'm beginning to really appreciate the concepts. So far it's a recap of what I've learnt in Physical Chemistry and CN1111. But the beauty of it is I don't see any meaning in those concepts when I was studying for my APC's, but now I see the light (ok, just a bit of it). Haha. Tutorials are tough, but at least I can start and figure something out so it's fine. Haha. Fluid mechanics is also pretty ok. Other than the extensive use of Math, and rather skimpy lecture notes, it's good. =D Ok tutorials start next week so I've gotta use this weekend to rush out all of it. Beware, university's tutorials are so deceiving. They only give like 5 questions per tutorial, but it will probably suck all the free time you have. Haha. Damn irritating. But the satisfaction gained from completing (or rather, attempting them=X) is amazing. Haha. The upcoming week will be not as relaxed, with the all the tutorial sessions. But oh well, embrace university life. =D

Oh just on a side note, it's the first time I have ever ponned classes in my life! LOL! I skipped half of Econs lecture on Tuesday to have dinner (but more importantly, the lecture was too much a turn-off), and I skipped GEK1527 lecture for CN2122 lecture yesterday. And in the midst of typing this, I skipped MA1505 make-up lecture. Awesome. I have never done it before, and now I have done it thrice in a single week! Haha! University teaches you this stuff. Bad influence. Haha.=D

New Beginnings...

School has officially started! Seems like such a long time ago since I last stepped into the lecture theatre as a student. School kick-started with Programming Lecture. Ok, it's still bearable. Nothing too exciting coz I'm not too interested in computing to start with. Oh well, but I really hope that he will change my opinion of computing. Oh and Kelvin is a Teaching Assistant for Lab! Awesome. Gonna ballot for his class. Haha. He tutored me and my fellow Chem Eng Geppers for CN1111 and yes I believe that he's a good tutor. Haha. So quite looking forward to it.

Next up was EC1301 lecture. OH MY GOD. Can they please change the lecturer! He's amazingly boring! And I can't really understand what he's conveying during the lecture. And I can't bring myself to re-watch his online lecture. SIAN. Ok now I treasure JC econs lecture! Mrs Than! Oh and even the "Open Your Eyes Big Big" Woman is better than this PhD. Haiz. And worst of all, it's in the evening. Ultimate sian. Yewei, Jiashen and I were totally not listening to him and his curry puff. Haha.

But I guess it gets better. Today's CN2121 lecture was pretty good. Dr Jiang's a very patient lecturer and I really appreciate what he's teaching today. I guess it's more of finding some sense in what's being taught during lecture and yes, I now believe that Chemical Engineering is the correct course for me. Awesomeness.

Tomorrow's a pretty long day for me. There's MA1505, IT1005 and the Writing Module WP2201H tomorrow. Oh and there's the Shell Scholarship talk/presentation. Actually I'm quite looking forward to the writing module. It's on Eating Right(s): The Politics of Food. Just read a few articles that the lecturer posted up just now and it seems exactly like the type of articles I would read voluntarily and it's something I would really write in my GP in JC. And it's small group seminar. From what I counted in CORs, there should be 9 people in my class only. Haha. I really prefer that over lectures. Haha.

Looking forward to more exciting (hopefully) days at NUS. =D

Modules!

As per normal, with CORS around, nothing is confirmed until they really send you the email. Haha. But yupz, my schedule is finally confirmed with changes of course:
MA1505: Mathematics I
CN2121: Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
IT1005: Introduction to Programming with Matlab
WP2201H: Eating Right(s): Food Politics
GEK1527: Genes and Society
EC1301: Principles of Economics
As you can see, I didn't manage to bid for my SS module coz the bid point's too high! Haha. And no one wants to do that GEM with me. So I switched to do the 2 above instead. GEK1527 should be ok since Betsy took it before and say that it's easy with H2 Biology background. Oh and get notes and stuff from her too! Awesome. And got people taking with me! Finally I'm not alone. Same for EC1301, should be fine with some Econs background. Haha. Can always ask Yanshan for help. Haha. So cool now I got yewei as my study buddy coz he taking almost the same mods as me. Haha. Awesome. It's damn scary to not know anyone taking same mod as you, just like for APC's.. Haha. Ok so that's the update for now. Haha.

Ok, appeal for my CN2122: Fluid Mechanics failed. Sad. But it's kinda within my expectations since my mentor's pretty conservative and the pre-requisites are just too many to waive. Oh well. Back to my original plan. I will be taking 6 modules this semester:
MA1505: Mathematics I
IT1005: Introduction to Programming with Matlab
CN2121: Chemical Engineering Thermodynamics
WP2201H: Eating Right(s): The Politics of Food (in place of EG1413)
SSA2220: Global Economic Dimensions of Singapore
GEK1001: Place, Environment and Society
The first 4 are confirmed as they are my core, so now i need to bid for the last 2. Hope I will be able to get them, if not I will need to do special term le. Sian. And the recommended schedule for me is insane. I need to do up to 29MC's in the last semester, which is utterly disgusting. Thank goodness for the APC's to help ease my workload. All the mugging before school even starts is worth it. Haha.

Ok anyway, these couple of days are pretty fun. Tuesday went for lunch followed by ice-cream and monopoly with the relief teachers gang. Haha. Really fun. And I cannot emphasize more how good the Mao Shan Wang Ice cream is at Udder's. Haha. Love it.

Yesterday when for Zhi Xuan's very last minute 21st birthday celebration at his home. Haha. He's house's a little bit hard to get to, or rather Sebastian lead us to nowhere. Haha. Cabbed there in the end. Haha. And it's a damn nice place in Bukit Timah, and there's endless things to do at his house! Haha. Wii, mahjong and anything. Haha. Had an awesome time with the Army peeps. Haha. On a random note, I found a bus that goes directly from Bukit Timah to home. And its damn fast. Even more awesome. Haha.

Ok tomorrow's the start of Engin Oweek. Yay. Finally I get to go for some camp. Have been feeling quite sian about missing ChESS Camp already due to my LSM1401 exam. Yupz, so looking forward to it. Oh and there's contract signing on Tuesday. Awesomeness. =D

CORS

I give up trying to ask for modules to be allocated. Just give me whatever you think I should get.

SIAN...

The Life~

Good things do come one after another. Haha. Monday went out with 01 peeps. Started out with watching Inception at Shaw, It's a good movie. But it does take some form of thinking to really get what's going on. But it's really quite a scary thought that you could actually be living in someone else's dreams. Eeeks. The concept of dreams is just.. Eerie. Haha. Ok, that's NOT the highlight of the day. Next up was buffet! Ok it's not just any buffet, it's buffet at Marriott Hotel!

Buffet!

Awesomeness. The food was great, but what's even better is the company! Haha. Outings with 01 is always full of nonsense and just plain fun.

Ok I've to admit. I ate quite a bit more than usual. So I(or rather we) was really full after the dinner. So we decided to go to the Helix Bridge! Took the circle line to Promenade Station. It's my first time there anyway. Haha. But the place's really nice.

Outside..

Inside...

Roamed all around the place as well as Marina Bay Sands. It's such a posh place to be in! All the brand names dominate the shop space of the MBS.. until I saw Epi Centre. LOL. Anyway it's camwhoring as usual with them. Lovely nights out. =D

Ok Wednesday went for some series of Engineering talks. OMG it's DAMN boring. As in really boring. I couldn't take it. Felt like sleeping. And it wasn't of much help other than the CORS bidding that's important for me. Overall a waste of time.

Thursday went for GEP Bonding Day.

New GEPer's with Prof Quek and a few seniors...

It was actually quite damn fun! Haha. Yeps enjoyed it thoroughly. Haha. Spent the lunch break discussing with fellow ChBE and EVE peeps and mentors about module plans and stuff. Oh I passed all 5 of APC's! Awesomeness to the maximum. It's really nerve-wrecking calling up the Science Office to ask for the results. But yeps, everything turned out really well, way better than I expected. But the best thing was that Prof Quek said I did well for my CN1111, which is my greatest concern! Woohoo! Anyway as such, I have to change my module plan again! Haha. But this time I'm more than willing to make the change. So it's sort of confirmed that I will be starting with level 2000 modules in my first semester. Now for timetable planning. Anyway I have quite a few changes in plans for my university life these couple of days. Another of which is that I have turned down the offer to stay at PGP and subsequently Utown. This is because of the offer from Shell to provide a scholarship to go for student exchange to the University of Cambridge for 1 year! The most exciting thing is SHELL! My dream job. Yupz, so hostel will not be beneficial to me as such. I will be going all out to try to arrange for this SEP to happen coz it's just like my motivation to do ChBE - that would mean cramping more modules in my year 1 and 3. But what the heck, it's still a scholarship from SHELL! I hope they bond me and make me go intern at their refineries in Singapore. To push it further, I hope they sponsor my masters as well. Awesomeness.

Today, went for registration. Got my matriculation card at last! I am now officially a student at NUS. There's this great sense of satisfaction. Don't ask me why, but I do feel really good that I'm now transiting into a new phase of my life. It's really quite exciting and daunting at the same time. Got to make new friends, new study environment, new everything. But thanks to the APC's, I guess my transition would be smoother coz I more or less know the system in NUS. BUT before that, I had to endure queuing up for the registration. The queue could easily exceed 200m. Damn long. But thank goodness the staff was quite efficient so I waited like an hour or so only. Haha. Good thing. Went to visit the Matriculation fair and stuff. Wasn't really too determined to join a CCA or something, coz most of the time I would probably in student exchange or summer programmes. So I guess committing to all the CCA's and stuff would not be a very responsible thing to do. So yupz, was looking at doing some volunteering work and stuff like that. I guess I can do something meaningful within my 2 years at NUS only. So yupz.

Yupz, so life has been pretty kind to me these days, giving me an advanced birthday present(s). I hope that everything can continue to be as smooth-sailing as it has been. So that's all for now!

Freedom.. Just for a month=X

Yayness. All my APC's are over. Don't remind me about CN1111. It was a terrible experience. Ok whatever. At most I see Mark Saeys again in Sem 2. LOL. Now's the ever irritating wait for results! So far only Prof Quek emailed me. I PASSED EG1109. Awesome. Haha. So that's one module down, 4 more to wait for. Haha. Anyway life's been great ever since exams are over. Have been slacking my life away - searching for my laptop, going out, and just not doing anything! Shioks. Anyway, I went to meet up with CG00/10 peeps for movie today. Watched Despicable Me. ITS DAMN GOOD! Hahaha. Loved every minute of it. And the minions are just.. ADORABLE! Haha. Especially the light stick minion. Wootz! Haha. So after movie rush off to the airport to meet my family for dinner. Haha. Was there coz my bro wanted to settle some flight issues, before he fly off for his visit to Australia(again) to holiday with his girlfriend. Haha. SooO envious lah. I want to go for a holiday again!

So after settling the stuff, Dad drove us to Tampines One where I bought my laptop! Was deciding between a Sony Vaio Z, Vaio F or Macbook Pro. But I decided that Mac OS was not for me, so that leaves me with the 2 Sony ones. My Dad's pretty anal about the place where I buy my laptop. He insists that I have to get it from Sony Style and no other dealers. Haha. So ended up in Sony Style at Tampines One. Ok as for the laptops, Vaio F and Z have roughly around the same specs, except that Z has a much longer battery life and smaller screen that F. So it's a trade-off. Haha. But the Vaio F's battery life was way to short. So I bought Vaio Z in the end!

Haha. Very satisfied with my purchase. Haha. It's super duper fast. Haha. Awesomeness. I manage to transfer 10GB in less than 5 minutes! And I can run lots of stuff simultaneously without lagging. Wootz!=D

Attended Jocelyn's 21st on Saturday. Haha. It's not a birthday celebration lah. It's more like a wedding celebration! Hahaha. But having said that, everything went on pretty smoothly and the video was so sweet lah. Haha. And it's like 01/06 surrounded by hordes of doctors-to-be. Haha. But it's ok, due to 01/06's never failing self-entertainment. Haha.

Love these 21st birthdays! Haha. Coz they are all like mini-class gatherings. And with the 01 peeps, life's never boring! =D

Ok looking forward to more exciting days ahead before Uni semester starts. Oh and I must start looking for games. Haha. Haven't been playing much mainly because my old com can't support anything more that iTunes! LOL. Command and Conquer 3 here I come!=D