Sunday, April 30, 2006
I'd just touched down 3 hours ago and I'm making full use of my body clock's screwed up timing to blog at 3.44am, since i'll probably procrastinate it by 10 years if i dont.
So hello! Yes I'm back from little over a week spent in philly and new york, jetlagged, hungry, and broke. But heck, it was money i certainly dont regret spending, seeing what a fantastic time i had there. I'd just finished downloading all the photos, fully intending to share the good ones with you right here, but there are just too many of them! So being the indecisive li'll bugger i am, i'll just post all of them on some image hosting site (when i finally get round to subscribing to one) and let ya see them. Let's see what I can scrounge up for now:
(I'll just talk about the Philly leg for now, my New York pics are still with debbie so i'll talk about it when they come!)
Hey Day
Barely 12 hours after I'd landed in the US, i was walking with the singaporean juniors (3rd yrs) at Hey Day, a Penn tradition where juniors get pelted by eggs, flour, shaving cream, mustard and other yucky stuff by the rest of the student population.
Penn Singaporeans
A friendly, intelligent and craaazy bunch of people who balance the work/study ratio extremely well. Everyone's either a president scholar, a national water polo player, army high flyer or has some other amazing achievement. Pressure man. They also party like there's no tomorrow. Hearing it was my birthday on tues, they tried to make me down 21 shots (they didnt succeed). Here's what I looked like after 5 shots and some red wine:
They made me feel welcome from the moment I'd landed though. Some even took the trouble to give me a midnight birthday surprise (prev post) even in the midst of frantic exam studying!
Philadelphia
Next was a one day tour of the great city of philly with debbie and her mum, who is, in debbie's words, "the young energetic type". We tried, among other things, 2 stalls across the street from each other competing for the #1 spot for philly cheese steaks. A pity i dont have a picture of the cheese steak itself, but here's one of the menu, which shows what a culture it is over there:
Campus Tour
Deb brought her mum and i around Penn the following day. I didnt take alot of pics though, seeing how I'm probably gonna have too many pictures of Penn by the end of the year anyway. Penn's a marvelously charming campus. In a Sinagporean context, its sorta like NUS and SMU combined. There're ultramodern high tech buildings, like the spanking new Wharton School, and there're the lovely old ones with mahagony floors, carpets, and lamplit tables by the windows. In debbie's words, one cant help but feel you're part of this amazingly long and rich tradition.
The campus is right in the city, with streets seperating it from the bookstores, shops, etc, but there's a cobblestone walk that runs through it where you can meet everyone on. The campus itself is entirely self-contained. There's a gym with an indoor pool and rock wall (yay!), many churches (including a Catholic one with great architecture), a bookstore run by Barnes and Noble, restaurants, theatres and everything else you need.
As for the students, I like the fact that everyone seems so different and diverse. You see people from all over the world, people with tattoos, people with gigantic ripped holes in the butt of their jeans, people in tuxedos, in business suits, track suits, and birthday suits (or so i'm told about the streakers during big events haha). On Locust Walk (that cobblestone walk i was talking about earlier), I've seen breakdancers, scholars, atheletes, political activists, artists. And the great thing is, nobody judges you because everyone is just so different. Deb tells me there's a hip hop/breakdance performance group on campus too.. sounds good!
All in all, i'm excited. I've been there, seen it, and it surpassed everything that i'd imagined it to be. All that's left now is for me to wait...
Stay tuned for my post and pictures of New York! (when i manage to get them, that is)
(yes, yes, i know my pics arent enough to showcase all the stuff we did, its just that i hate to clutter my blog up and would prefer to put them all into a nice image hosting site okaaaaaaaay. so be patient!)
he rocked the party at 12:44 PM |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
The best birthday surprise comes when its totally, absolutely unexpected.
We'd just finished a mexican dinner and I was enjoying a nap on deb's couch which was rudely interrupted by a "lionel, could you help me carry a chair from the lounge please?"
There I was, hair tousled, barefooted, clothes rumpled, shuffling to the lounge when a darkened roomful of penn singaporeans and deb's friends greeted me with a chorus of "HAPPY BIRTHDAY!", a spread of snacks, big majong paper poster and a wonderful penn sweater for a present.
I can think of no better way to celebrate my birthday than with a bunch of friendly, crazy people whom i barely know who'd take time off their tremendous mugging schedules to come down at midnight, and of course with my favourite gurl DEBBIE and her mum, you scheming pair you.
Thank you too, dear readers, for all the wonderful birthday sms-es, and overseas charges you didnt have to pay for, but chose to send them anyway. -sigh- its experiences like these that really make a guy truly, completely, unconditionally happy.
So thank you. :)
he rocked the party at 5:37 AM |
Monday, April 24, 2006
Well so I've spent the last 3 days having a blast here at Philly with deb and her mum. Pictures will be up soon, I promise, there're just so many priceless photos I cant wait to show off. So be good, and be patient. :)
The campus is charming, the city lovely, the people friendly and the lifestyle wonderfully independent. It looks even better that what I imagined it to be. (Im told its because now is the best time to visit, it usually doesnt look that pretty, but I'm just savouring it right now and not really caring.)
I'd talk more about the trip so far but I dont wanna spoil it when the pictures come. In a nutshell, its everything I've been dreaming about, and more. Perhaps I'm being idealistic. Deb says I shouldnt have any expectations before i'm officially here, so I'm trying not to. Still, its tough to not keep imagining what my life is gonna be like once I've assimilated into this whole college experience, now that I'm here.
Oh, and ive spent $300 US dollars so far. I am so gonna be broke. Damn these rich kids and their wonderfully tempting and exorbitant lifestyles. Haha.
he rocked the party at 5:38 AM |
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
So yep, I'm leaving for the US of A in like, 4 hours time. And though I get a kick out of telling people I'm leaving to study for 4 years, I'm actually only going for 10 days, and I'll be back 11.35pm on the 30th. Welcome Committees will be most welcome (and duly rewarded with lavish gifts, of course. - Gosh I'm so shameless)
Will have my phone with me so feel free to call if you're reallyreally lonely (or reallyreally rich).
Otherwise, stay tuned for my next post from The Land of Liberty!
Something completely out of point: I conducted my first item rehearsal today. Thought it was wonderful. Whoohoo!
he rocked the party at 12:34 PM |
Monday, April 17, 2006
Now I dont pretend to know very much about politics in Singapore (perhaps I'm just another one of those "apathetic" Singaporeans that our generation seems to be made up of), but I was inspired to watch Why My Vote Matters, MM Lee's dialogue with 10 cynical under-30s, after finding time to read the papers (finally) today.
It was, to my surprise, very engaging and throughly entertaining, but less insightful than I'd hoped it to be. Let's start with the fun part first. It was with some sadistic pleasure that I watched the 10 youths get pulverized by Mr Lee's eloquence and razor-sharp comebacks. Granted, I started watching the show rooting for the 10 youngsters, but they were clearly no match for the "old lion". They spoke too fast, rambled, and unneccessarily repeated each other's questions. One suspects many of them were simply voicing out for the sake of being heard on the show, for fear of being the extra person just taking up space there. How they kept interrupting each other was particularly irritating, reminding me of those smartass scholars trying to make an impression during scholarship evaluations.
I was left cringing at Lee Ching Wern's question of "so there's an assumption that the party that moves the best, and is the cleverest, will be the government?" -cute smile- as well as some of her whines ("But it's truuuue!") Eeeks. And is it just me, or was Kor Kian Beng's question of whether the PAP holds "first choice candidates, they best that (the PAP) can get, or are they 2nd-tier candidates, after the first choice candidates refused to come enter politics" totally irrelevent and unneccessary? Sheesh. I mean, what has that got to do with anything they were talking about?
Not all was lost, however. They did raise some issues which I'd been wondering about (but never cared to ask, or even ponder over) like the lack of upgranding funds to opposition constituencies, or the PAP's apparent "total destruction" of opposition members. I thought Mr Lee answered those questions, among others, marvelously, which made watching that video worthwhile.
I found myself siding with reporter Ken Kwek. Not many people can withstand a verbal onslaught, cross-examination style from the MM and live to tell the tale. I think he had a valid point about the general sentiment of some Singaporeans being afraid to vote against the PAP, but he got slammed because of the lack of evidence. I personally feel that that still doesnt change the sentiments, however, but Mr Lee disappointingly failed to address that.
All in all, the whole session can be summarised by this priceless blogspot by Rockson. It was entertaining tournament of wits, albeit a one-sided one. Though some of Mr Lee's responses didnt directly address the issues raised, but they did clear some doubts. I thought putting 10 youngsters with the courage to talk about controversial issues was a commendable effort, but perhaps this particular group wasn't quite ready against the veteran. I'd like to see our Prime Minister or some of our other Ministers hold similar forums with members directly involved in their responsibilities, like the Health and Defence ministers. Let's hope they get a group of people who're more evenly matched this time.
he rocked the party at 10:39 PM |
Friday, April 14, 2006
I have this irresistable urge to jam-pack my days with waaay too many activities whenever a significant event comes along. There's a indescribable joy in doing stuff, stuff and more stuff without thinking about anything. Thus this post, sadly, is one of those "I did this, I did that" posts which I'm so against writing.
The significant event which kicked it off was my official ORD from National Service 2 days ago:
1. Thursday was:
a. Booking in for the last time to collect my coveted pink i/c, eating in the canteen for the last time, saying bye to all my colleagues (and saying, "Dont worry la, it'll be your turn in a few more months.." more than once), and just grinning in euphoria the whole morning.
Before:
And After:
b. Heading straight to tampines mall to cut and dye my hair (at a cutthroat price of $110. Bloody pirates.) Its a lovely shade of just-finished-swimming-brown now, subtle enough not to be ah beng, but obvious enough to justify the price.
c. Watching Take the Lead (Great show with a fantastic hip-hop soundtrack and inspiring enough to make me wanna take salsa / ballroom classes. Anyone?) and a sushi dinner with Kelly.
d. A lousy night at Smoove with buddies Ed, Jason and Wei Kiat. MOS is seriously overhyped, with expensive drinks, lousy air-conditioning and waaaaaaaaaay too many guys and drunk girls.
2. Friday was:
a. Dragging my post-clubbing-slept-at-5.30am ass up at 8am to go for a Level One rock climbing course at Climb Adventure, this indoor rock climbing centre at Tanjong Pagar, a strangely rewarding experience. A new hobby discovered, with a perfect opportunity to train up beefy forearms in prep for the US of A, all thanks to Chia How. :)
b. And the perfect way to end the flurry of activities: Meeting 9 of the Penn Singaporeans of the Class of 2010 for the first time over dinner at Subway and drinks at Chijmes. A bunch of extremely intelligent guys and girls (who're incidentally all from HC and RJ, with the guys all from Chinese High. Baaah.), yet discovering we've got more in common than I thought. Reigniting the excitement of going to Penn again, with plans to travel, apply for housing and paaaartying. Getting inspired (or more like pressured) to get a decent internship and not waste my few months left in sg. Allaying my fears of having nerdy, mugger friends in uni. I foresee an exciting, study-and-party-to-the-max 4 yrs up ahead!
he rocked the party at 9:25 PM |
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
Introducing the newest addition to my family... Isabelle: My lovely, sparkling 30GB iPod Video, using the money saved from extending my ORD. Muaaack!
Just a thought: It's a good thing iPod didnt own Singapore, or Changi would be known as iChang.
he rocked the party at 9:57 AM |
Sunday, April 09, 2006
This is one of those days when I feel like I've been out of touch with so many of my friends for so long that hardly anyone really gives a shit about li'll ol me anymore.
Baaaaaaah.
The past 4 years were packed with ccas, studies, council, army and relationships where I made dozens of friendships, yet I never seem to stay in close contact with them once the activities have died down. (With the exception of my few council buddies of course.. Thank God for y'all, my bruddas! :) I see my friends making plans, having fun and moving on with life, and I cant help thinking that I've been missing from a big part of so many of my friends' lives, if only I'd made the effort to keep the friendships going.
And its humbling that I only feel it now, when the activities (ie bloody army) have stopped aruptly, leaving me with too much free time, and too much time on my own. And it IS awkward to re-establish friendships, but I suppose I've gotta do it, I dont wanna lose the people that have made me truly happy these past 9 years of my life.
So dear friends, if I've ever been a bastard and sacrificed our friendship for all the activities, the work, and all the other "cool" things that I thought could define me before, I'm sorry. I shall be a good friend keeper from today onwards.
On a happier note, I'll most probably be leaving for the US of A in 10 days' time to join my longestbestestwonderfulest gal pal Debbie up at my future college UPenn! Dont worry, I'm not leaving to study just yet, just taking an opportunity to check the place out before I hand in my College Housing and student visa app, and to pop by NYC and Niagra Falls while I'm at it. A decision made purely on impulse just yesterday, and which will cripple me by at least $2000. Well, I did say I was going to travel after army, and I did say I was gonna go visit Penn, however unneccessary it may be. But who cares? It's time I did something expensive, silly, and mindblowingly fun.. Cant wait!
he rocked the party at 6:01 AM |
Saturday, April 08, 2006
A continuation of the "Signs with Bad English" series..
Seen in a theme park in Taiwan on an OCS trip. (From Ian's blog)
Seen at a LAN shop in Sai Yok Camp.
Why do I only see signs with bad english on SAF trips?
he rocked the party at 12:59 AM |
Friday, April 07, 2006
At least, now I'm sure.
There was once when I contemplated sacrificing my dreams over someone whom I thought could make me happy. I'm glad I didnt.
She didnt believe it could work. So actually, it was doomed from the start.
Admittedly, I allowed myself a glimmer of hope before I left last month, but she extinguished it again. Which was a good thing, since now I dont have to make a choice for someone who was deserving.
I'm glad that it ended this way. I have no regrets, no feelings of hurt or betrayal. Only happiness that the past year was wonderful, and anticipation of fulfilling my dreams in the years to come. You'll always have a place in my heart :)
"said I'm so sick of love songs, so sad and slow
so why can't I turn off the radio.."
he rocked the party at 11:56 PM |
Thursday, April 06, 2006
2 pictures arent enough to capture all the nonsensical, metrosexual things my buddies and I get up to.
Looks like kuay chap right? No, that's actually Eugene. Well, actually, the thing he's about to put in his mouth looks like kuay chap too right? But guess what? It's actually tissue paper soaked in bak ku teh soup.. Eugene's playing with his food again.
This is really pretty gay: We went over to Eug's house, tried out his new cleanser and this thingamajig that makes our skin really soft, and Nolan and Ervin actually started reading the brochure to find out more about extrafoliators, toners and everything else. We're so shamelessly metrosexual.
he rocked the party at 10:04 AM |
Came around 7pm in the form of an sms from my boss: "Gents, our 3rd mission is officially off."
Whooopiedoo! Cheers to the SAF for its inefficiency, beaucracy and inflexibility, which were probably the main factors why atec couldnt arrange a repeat exercise for us. Which is good news for us poor, suffering extended ORD officers, since we dont have to endure another 3 days of maps, planning, camo cream, heavy packs and trudging through the bloody jungle.
Though yes, I had psyched myself up to do it all over again, albeit reluctently. An except from the journal I kept in Thailand:
"Sacrifice. Would I do it? Would I endure a change of perception to do one last mission, however painful and stressful it may be to start from scratch again? After turning it in my head for a hundred times, I've decided that yes, I would. For closure's sake, I suppose. Bn 2IC said something really meaningful yesterday. He asked me how I would feel if I'd turned my back on CPT Wilson and Kin and they ended up f***ing up the mission. And how I would feel if I'd known I could've made a difference if only I'd been there. Perhaps that's what this whole thing is about then: Making a difference."
Yeah, perhaps its easy to say this now, but I'm glad that I'd made that decision while there was a possibility of doing a mission. Perhaps there's hope that I'm not that calculative, selfish person that I've feared I've become recently. This change of events certainly makes things a whole lot easier and clears my conscience too, haha.
Well, as for now... ORD awaits!
he rocked the party at 9:44 AM |
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Will upload the rest of them when i stop procrastinating and find a proper image hosting site. Enjoy these for now..
Our lovely bathroom: imagine a dozen naked guys standing around the pool and splashing water at each other. (i know some of you will actually get turned on by this)
he rocked the party at 12:39 PM |
The three Deputys.. DyS4, DyS2 and DyS3
he rocked the party at 12:37 PM |
The kind of things we do when we're stressed...
he rocked the party at 12:35 PM |
... and even more stressed.
he rocked the party at 12:34 PM |
The teeth certainly give us away..
he rocked the party at 12:33 PM |
Extend ORD Officers!
he rocked the party at 12:31 PM |
Operations and Intelligence branches.. the most stressful jobs in the SAF.
he rocked the party at 12:29 PM |
This happened during a safari ride on our e-tour.. we had 4 - 5 giraffes sticking their heads into our bus and licking everything with their gigantic tongues.. kinda gross actually,
he rocked the party at 12:27 PM |
some compensation for wearing a shirt for the flight... business class!
he rocked the party at 12:25 PM |
Monday, April 03, 2006
I'm wearing track pants over my shorts because my room has turned into a mosquito haven in my absence. Perhaps a dusty, uninhabited room seems to be the perfect location for a mosquito HQ. I should've brought home those mosquito zapper "piak piak" things in the shape of a badminton raquet from Thailand.
Gosh you should've seen my bedtime ritual: Crawling under my mosquito net with that deadly badminton raquet and yelling "DIEEE U BASTARDS!!" piakpiakpiakpiakpiakpiakpiakpiak. For a good 5 mins every night my bed would look like zouk on a mambo night.
Hello dear reader! Yes I'm finally back from my month long hiatus. I'd really expected to do a whole "ORD LOH!!" post upon my return, but ah, it wasnt meant to be. I'll explain why in a minute. Exercise Bluethunder 2006 in Thailand was certainly an experience nevertheless.
The irritating thing about not blogging for an entire month, there's just so much to write about.. a totally different lifestyle, personality and mindset, that even if i'd blogged about it, i'd still probably not be able to capture the entire experience as well as i'd have liked to. I could write entire posts on the scorching afternoon temperatures, water fights with my bosses in the bathroom, transvestite canteen stall owners, commando pride rallies and cheers, adreline filled missions, and planning procedures packed with back-to-back deadlines. But like everything else, i'll leave it to the pictures to do the talking. (Which i'll upload in awhile, be patient! I havent even unpacked my camera yet!)
The real (and only) bummer in the whole exercise was this: In a nutshell, our finale battalion mission had to be cancelled midway because some dumb hunter shot at two of our umpires while we were walking in the middle of the night. Yes, as in, shot. Must've thought he was a gigantic wabbit or something. The guys are fine with only superficial injuries, but we now face a possibility of a repeat battalion mission in singapore, sometime next week. Just before I ORD! How suay is that??!
It aint confirmed yet, but everyone's praaaying that it wouldnt come true. My reflections on sacrificing my ORD leave for it in my next post.. right now i'd better unpack my clothes before they spawn flesh-eating mutants, and to deal with these damn mosquitoes. Now where's that mosquito piakpiak zapper badminton raquet?
he rocked the party at 10:57 PM |
