what you dont know you know

you'll miss it when its gone. old is gold. distance makes the heart grow fonder. you've all heard these phrases on so many occasions, many of them in the cheesiest of situations from very cheesy people (quite possibly me) but unless you've been in a situation like this, its impossible to know exactly how true these sayings really are. right, you go on a one week vacation and dont see your girlfriend for 9 days, great. you miss her, you think about her all the time, but its cool, you see her when you get back. in the meantime, you've got plenty to occupy you, family/other friends, activities etc. but when it comes to actually being isolated from all that you know, its a different ballgame. today is the first day/night that i've actually felt legitimately homesick, and boy, did it hit hard. i miss everything. i miss the days waking up to breakfast with heeeren and ricky back at school. i miss the weekend nights fucking around south with the whole crew. i miss ordering wings for sunday night football. i miss ranking on vishal for his flat jump shot. i miss seeing chris once every week with a stupid new story to tell me. i miss saying goodnight to brian every night. i miss it all, and you cant possibly know this until you've been put this far outside of your own comfort zone. most of all, everyone has someone that they can count on for almost anything, and when you dont have that person around, everything else becomes that much worse. for those of you that know me, i'm all about new experiences, about exploring the boundaries of my own experiences and expanding them as far as i can. however, it appears that i've got limits, just like any other human being, and ive realized exactly what the comforts of my own life back home mean to me. it makes getting up in the morning more difficult, it makes getting about my day that much more laborious, and definitely makes the nights, in the end, lonelier. for your own sake, you all, please dont take for granted what you experience on a daily basis. make an effort to realize exactly what your family, what your friends, and your own daily routines mean you to. they're mean more to you than you can possibly imagine. goodnight...

all hail peoplesoft?!

first and foremost, i finally put up a picture album on facebook. go see it!


As we all, as students at UConn know, there are few things in life more frustrating than peoplesoft, its a well known fact. Richa, this goes out to you in particular, who rarely even schedules her own classes. however, one thing even MORE frustrating seems to be, get this, not having peoplesoft around. go figure. this past week has been a shitshow with me registering for classes with this incredibly convoluted system that is supposed to "refine your decision making skills and face consequences like an adult."


(taken directly out of a POWERPOINT PRESENTATION that they have to put up because the system is so goddamn confusing. not only this, but said powerpoint is only for the system that the resident students use...theres a different system altogether for exchange students! little do we know this, and the professors here know only marginally more than we do, which basically means they know nothing more or less. for starters, students here BID for classes with points they are all given at the beginning of the semester. moreover, there are round for bidding, between which nothing can be done. retarded. the exchange student system is basically like peoplesoft's add/drop...but wait, it cant be that simple. we follow the "round" system, which is inherently retarded. not to mention, when you "add" a class, it takes the registrar's office 3-5 days to actually get back to you and let you know if you get the class or not. due to this, students are regularly attending 5 to 7 classes in the first couple weeks just in case they actually get registered in any of them. needless to day, peoplesoft's one shot deal with adding/dropping classes is MUCH preferred to this supposedly "responsibility building" but realistically chaotic system.

on the upside, apparently people here dont really know what a work week is, pretty much party 4 nights a week...during the week. so far, im on a streak of going out two nights starting wednesday, and have a feeling that may not end for another couple days. i dont know how much of this im gonna be able to handle or for how much longer..it def gets tiring after a little while. but at least at this point its a good way to go out and meet people. for the most part, people have found people they like to hang out with, and most have even started taking trips to places around here. me and a few friends were SUPPOSED to take a trip to Kukup, a nice little fishing town basically just over the Malaysian border, this weekend, but some douchebags decided it'd be fun to leave all of us off the list, so turns out we're singapore-bound this weekend. but it should still be okay...we havent explored at lot of the things do to around here, so im kind of excited to go to a couple museums they have on the island, a birdpark (which should probably have a lot of really nice tropical varieties) among other things. either way, i should probably get on looking for travel opportunities very soon. things are already pretty much sold out for chinese new year (which we get two days off for in the first week of feb hehe) but we get a week of for "spring" break and then another week before finals and another week before most of us leave after we're done with all our finals. good times.

in conclusion, i was waiting at a bus stop after class with about four other people. as soon as the bus came down the road towards us, two things came quickly along with it: a mob of people to take the bus, and the unmistakable odor of singaporeans...its really quite unfortunate to have to be subjected to this, but i'll put it under the category of occupational hazard by studying here. Cheers!

a few pictures

the best looking ladies i've seen in singapore so far. boooo to asians

i was there for a whole day. its called Sentosa Island, a small island off the coast of the main island of Singapore. beautiful place, really. this was a bit later in the day, but i like the color of the sky in this picture.

this is just a bad joke, really. who the hell names a road "Hindoo Rd"?! sounds like what the police officer from Harold & Kumar would write down...kumar, whats that, four O's and two U's?

arrested? damnnn

the last six days have definitely been a blur...with all the orientation stuff going on and classes having started this monday, its definitely been hectic. but, in the middle of all that, i've still managed to explore the island a bit more each day, which im definitely happy about. the more and more i learn about this place, the more it really seems like its a very normal sort of place. not too much different in some aspects than bombay or new york, really. its got its nuances, but then again, what city doesnt? the one thing i did notice is that public transport is definitely big here. the bus and subway systems are really really good, and very well used. not to mention air conditioning in all of it, so if nothing else, its a reprieve from the blazing temperatures during the day.

on a separate note, it took barely a week for one of us exchange students to have a run-in with the law here in singapore...didnt say i didnt see it coming, but this soon? dammmn. sooo we were in a HUGE department store, the size of three or four targets or walmarts, and one of our friends (who will hereby be adressed as P) was looking at some lipstick. all of a sudden, P is taken into the security room on the grounds that she shoplifted. now, nobody that comes into this country is ignorant enough to not know how strict the law is here, so obviously she wasnt actually shoplifting. so, she calls me up, crying frantically about how she scared and doesnt know what to do, which is exactly what i'd do if i got into a situation like this. me and another dude run upstairs to find out what's happening, but they dont let us see her for at least a half hour or so, and not without a significant amount of badgering. eventually we see her, she's in shambles, confused as all hell about her situation. eventually, after an hour or so, some guy comes out and explains whats going on, and it sounds so ridiculous, but what can we do? me and one of our friends wait there for her while the others leave, the officers said they had no clue how long it could possibly go. eventually, a total of two and a half hours into this deal, she comes out in cuffs...and all of a sudden im pissing myself. they actually arrested her, she was arrested in singapore, and put into a cell for about four hours before she calls us from the police station at 1 in the morning saying that she is free to go, but has to go back the next day to find out if they're pressing charges. that was at least a relief, that she didnt have to sit there overnight...and on the eve of classes starting, no less. upon going back, she finds out she was acquitted, and all is well. either way, crazy start to what im sure is going to be a crazy semester. cheers, to Singapore!

long night, lazy dayy

yesterday marked what i consider to be the official beginning of the academic festivities on campus. all the exchange students had to go to a registration session where they basically just made sure you werent retarded and could read the instructions on the packet they sent to everyone...good to know they trust us so much. on top of this, tomorrow theres an orientation session where they'll tell us god knows what..hopefully it'll be useful, because its at 10AM...not a friendly time, i'd say.

during the three hour wait until our number was up, me and bieu decided to roam campus a little bit...and its beautiful. theres greenery everywhere! beautiful trees and grass all over the place...easily more green than uconn, which is interesting because uconn's on a farm. the student center there is also quite nice...they've got a food court with a lot of asian food, naturally, and then a subway...great placement, though it does seem to get a lot of business lol. inside, they have another couple sit down restaurants, including a bar on the top floor. this place is getting better and better as time goes on! the buildings all look so new and modern, and the insides are pristine...i gotta give it to these people, they know how to make people comfortable. the sports and recreation center is less than stellar, but then again, the singaporeans arent really known to be world class athletes either lol. its certainly adequate, and the nice thing is that part of the "recreation" is a spanish sports bar -- "Hermanos" -- where i'll end up time and again during the semester, im sure.


then, at night,we decided to go out on the town for a little bit...meeting people was so easy! a lot of people, we met at registration and about 15 of us or so decided to go to a place down by the river called Clark Quey, basically just a center with lots of restaurants, bars, and clubs. wednesday nights are "ladies night" all over singapore where girls get in and drink free almost EVERYWHERE...and theres a min $20 cover for guys along with $14 pints. damn pricey, if you ask me. the girls decided to go off elsewhere, but me and a few other guys decided to find a bar and play some pool for a little while, which was preferable for me. later we joined up and roamed around for a while, then headed home. it was good to just experience what it was like, and im sure that we'll be out again soon...next week, i'll be out with the "natives" hopefully, and they'll actually be able to show me around, which'd be nice.


you've never seen rain unless you've seen it rain here. living in new england our whole lives, we've all seen downpours, but this is about as crazy as they come here. it took literally 30 seconds for it to go from on rain at all to rain falling so hard, the huge raindrops might hurt if you went outside. and the thunder? as loud as a sonic boom, resonating through my entire body--it was frighteningly loud. now it makes sense why they have gutters and little ruts running all over campus--just in case it rains (which it does quite often these times of year). at the bottom of the hill behind my building, they have a drainage trench collect all the rainwater and send it away, and it was like a grand rapid in the heat of the downpour.

in conclusion, i found this above the door on a bus, censored for your viewing pleasure. enjoy.

www.AllLookSame.com

visit the website that is the title of this post and youll be as good as me here in singapore...mind you, my high score on that quiz up there is a 5 out of 18...didnt even make the law of averages look reasonable. and as it stands, for every asian that i know at home, i've seen >= 3 people that look exactly like them in the 24 hours i've spent here thus far. however, the fact that i'm actually seeing that many oriental people (outside of chinatown, NYC), is slowly beginning to occur to me as a significant aspect of reality...

IM IN SINGAPORE!!!

the day has gone quite smoothly so far. came into the country at the ungodly hour of 1AM, was picked up, and spent the day with a family friend, and then came here to school. the campus is beautiful! i couldnt believe it when i first got onto campus...its got more greenery than farmland and/or UConn. wide open grassy areas, TONS of trees, its absolutely incredible. and big! its easily almost twice the size of UConn...i got lost in my RESIDENCE COMPLEX already, forget actually going outside and exploring the rest of campus! the rooms are all singles, but they're really not that bad. plenty of space for one person, in my opinion.



so, it turns out one of the most favorite activities of the "sing" is eating. now, for those of you who know me, this happens to be one of my most favorite activities, so this pretty much seems like a match made in heeeeaaven! walk out onto the street, and theres almost more places to eat than there are places to shop, its absolutely unbelievable. and ALL kinds of food, every kind you could possibly want...and all so cheap!! you can eat a full meal in about $4 or so, im currently at a solid 165lbs, we'll see what i come back at...how do these people manage to stay so skinny? crazytalk!

ooookay so its actually 4AM and im not quite sure why i woke up..oh, its probably because i went to bed at 830..whoops? the jetlag's not bad though, significantly better than i was expecting. but back to bed...sure to post again soon though! :)

P.S.: to my delight, i did NOT get caned the first night here. however, that does significantly increase my chances for it happening within the next 24 hours. damn!

nagasaki! hiroshima! konichiwa?

i have completed a majority of my journey as i sit here in yet another (nicer still) business class lounge in tokyo, sipping on yet another *beverage* listening to a combination of the "2 fast 2 furious" theme song (tokyo drift) and actual japanese people chatter on about wangs and chongs and things of the sort.



in all my spare time here, i decided to roam around for a bit, naturally. found some duty free shops, which were all the same mostly though i did pick up some grape flavored soft candy and some plum flavored gum, delectable in my opinion. either way, while walking around, i got my first of true asian sex appeal...in the form of an advertisement. now, yes, kinda weird, but take a look at the poster below and you might change your mind. not only does it show you a picture of a rather attractive asian girl that cant be a day past 24 but she's also normal sized (as opposed to the miniature japanese stereotype) but the poster pretty much tells you what youre thinking, with the emphatic "Touch!" across the middle. i dont even know what they're advertising, but i want it, and that is evidence that this poster has done its job.


okay, back to my NFL highlights and bottomless *beverages*. NOW the next post will be from singapore i promise :) and yes, the last part of the title is indeed, not japanese. kudos to those who noticed.

who woulda thunk it?

as i sit here in the surprisingly nice business class lounge with a surprisingly delicious ice cold japanese *beverage* at 8AM, i cant help but notice...over 75% of the passengers checking in their baggage at the japan airlines were...of oriental descent, to be said nicely. note to self: this is what uconn would look like if there were a bunch of brians running around, except without the big lips, or the big eyes, or...who am i kidding, brian doesnt look asian. either way, this place is much nicer than i expected it to be. a nice secluded room, free internet access, free food and drinks, theres no way you can go wrong.


on the upside, i didnt cry when i left my family! ...not that i thought i would, its just that..you know...nevermind. i suppose its kind of starting to hit me now, that i'm leaving everything i know and love for a foreign country i know nothing about with nobody i know. its certainly an unsettling feeling, but i know somewhere inside me that this is gonna be an incredible experience. and i clearly lied in my last post when i said that the next post (this one) would be from singapore. sorry about that.

on a side note...

this is what chris yi looked like back in high school. i recently found a powerpoint presentation i made that featured all the lovely volunteers at the hospital i volunteered at, and while thinking of singapore i noticed that chris is actually slanty-eyed, and i should expect to see more people that look like this when i get there. speaking of which, my flight is less than 8 hours away at this point, and it still hasnt really hit me, what i'm actually doing, that is. its cool though...i figure that this rate if i just remain oblivious to what's happening and wake up at the end of all this with some hooker in singapore, it'll be more exciting anyway...like i teleported there or something. either way, im quite tired but the night must go on...ive decided to stay awake all through the night until my flight at 9AM and set my circadian rhythms to Singapore time before i even get there, and it looks like i might actually pull it off. once agian, picture below = chris yi...in case you couldnt tell. next post will be from singapore!!

T-minus 2 till takeoff

Here I am, two days till I leave for the experience of a lifetime, and I'm nearly crapping my pants. Its like any big event in your life. You see it, you know its coming, but it never really hits you. I'm still in the mindset that I'll be here for the rest of break, go back to UConn and resume my useless life on campus...I don't really know how to get into gear for this trip, but im sure it'll happen sooner or later, i trust things to work out on their own. On the upside, all my packing is done, and i basically just have to show up at the airport with my tickets and board the plane, so all of the stress work has been done already. This should definitely be a good trip. i mean, it is Singapore...i can finally meet the rest of Brian's family, i've been meaning to do that for ages lol no but seriously, im definitely excited about it...cant wait till i get there! knowing me i'll step into the airport and do something stupid, and end up getting caned the first night...pray for me, please.