lunchtable rhetoric

Hey girls

2006-12-03T07:18:00.000+08:00

It's such a pity that we all seem too busy to post here anymore! Can't blame anyone (partly because I'm a culprit too), university can be alot of work, especially if we're talking about us IB-ised kids who love to do 10 things outside of class as well! I say that we keep making that little bit of effort to keep in touch though, facebook, msn, anything, if posting here is too much of a hassle!

Hope you are all well. I've been yo-yoing between some kind of blueness and exuberance, but now I've just come out of a dip so I'm good again :) Get in touch!

Eternally sleepy

2006-09-16T09:50:00.000+08:00

Whoa... I haven't read our blog for a while, and now there are tons of interesting stuff going on. Maybe it's not meant to be read regularly...

To be honest, I haven't read the entries in detail, but I scanned through them!

That question about women's issues. It's kind of hard, since right now everything is pretty much measured by a 'western' standard. Probably because the west did start out introducing all the 'modern' stuff that makes living comfortable and convenient for people. We can't just suddenly go to the middle east and tell the women there not to wear veil. At the same time, there are women who want to get rid of all these veil rules, but can't because it's not allowed. I think they should have the freedom to wear whatever they want. If they like wearing veil, there is no reason to not do so. The thing is, they do not want to wear veil because they see all this western/'modern' women clothing.

Okay, I am blabbering. But I'm always interested in that issue of feminism. It's almost always sound like a paradox, or an oxymoron, or ... I don't know... it's just that I know women had/have been the inferior gender in many/most society, thus, it's reasonable to have all this movements and such to help them. At the same time, I felt that by having all these movements, we are admitting to the world that we are indeed weaker and we need a special treatment to raise up.

But there are indeed women in such bad circumstances that a 'feminist' movement would help them a lot. But it seems to me that a lot of the times, all these feminist ideas and the literature on them get so overblown that they just becomes some jumble of theoretical nonsense, and thus do not really help the actual women who needs help.

But yeah, I think there are a lot of misconception about feminism. I don't know that much about it, and that's part of my opinion. What is it exactly? What is the goal?

Dip and up

2006-09-04T22:02:00.000+08:00

I always want to post on here but usually the previous posts require so much thought and contemplation that I'm always worried I don't have smart enough things to say! But sometimes I also get the feeling that there isn't enough of a 'discussion' with decent participation from all of us!

Adhira and her Feminist Fridays is one of the scary issues! The world 'feminism' already kind of makes me draw back - it's not that I don't think that women dying for our right to vote is negligible or anything, I'm glad we've progressed from times when women weren't allowed to attend university, or act in theatre. But somehow these days most of the things being said seem to have no direction, or any useful purpose.

The issue about veils and relative/absolute notions of feminine oppression is interesting though... I do feel it is a restriction as they are controlloing the right for women to wear what they like, but the way you put it 'Western women forcing their values on middle eastern women'... hmm... sometimes the oppression is so ingrained that the middle eastern women may begin to find it intuitive, even 'right' to wear a veil. It's a tricky one. What do you mean when you refer the Chapter IX though? (In addition to female circumcision, look into African breast ironing, to stunt growth and ward of unwanted sexual attention).

Margie, have already commented on your personal blog... but I still don't get your equation, what are the subscripts differentiating between?

I'm still exploring Rome (see my LJ... yes it is friends locked but here are some tasters... some pics on Facebook as well... as much as I didn't want to get sucked into that it is handy sometimes).

Made some friends at IFAD :) As I said to Margaret, I found that my Uni friends are on the whole, severely lacking in the 'global knowledge' area... Politics, or (even their own) history, or even a rudimentary understanding that there are different cultures out there. Maybe I've just been hanging out with the wrong people but it kind of feels like a step down from our Lunchtable talks. Anyway, the IFAD crew are mostly 22-35 and most of them hold multiple masters and I have so much to learn from every one of them! So, it's fun in that way :)

I commence my final year of undergraduate studies in 3 weeks!

Hey Everyone!

2006-09-03T09:58:00.000+08:00

I'm back at Mudd, just about to end the first week of classes. I really like all my classes, hooray for being done with all the core courses -- even if I tripped up at the end and got a D in engineering systems and signals (aka Stems). Best of all, I'm taking Organic Chemistry (actually 2nd semester of organic chemistry for us) and Molecular Bio, and I have 2 labs + research, and then I have the awesomest 3 hum classes.

I'm taking a class on Immigration and Ethnicity in America here at Mudd, and so far its been excellent. As with all mudd hums, there's lots of reading but the discussions are awesome. It's interesting to look at the whole phenomenon of immigration and assimilation from the viewpoint of Americans, it's revealing a lot of new things for me, and I didn't realize as much the predicament of say, anglo americans who's ethnicity has been distilled so much that they don't really have a ethnic consciousness pertaining to themselves -- and it really isn't right for people to force others to pick something, say on a census. In a post-ethnic world, you could pick any ethnic heritage. One of the points I made in class was that I think that cultural pluralism is a more important metaphor for the way that ethnic groups should view their ethnicities, rather than some melting pot that assumes/directs that each person will all converge on some exact kind of set of values again and will pass that on to their children. Because I really don't think that cultural heritage comes just in what you practice, but its also cultural knowledge, what you know. It's a personal choice, but I think it's possible and wonderful that you can pass on these strains of cultural knowledge and heritage so that at least coming generations can return to values if they so choose, and give them more choices and viewpoints to take.

The next class in The World Since 1492, which I take at Pitzer. Ah Pitzer classes. It's all lecture-format, required workshop, but no external reading required. I really like it, because the class it addresses a wide variety of historical, economical, etc. trends and themes that has been touched on in books I've read but I've never gotten to think about the whole topic, or hear what historians have to say about the phenomena. Last class we learnt about capitalism and long distance trade... one of my favorite points was that long distance trade made profit possible, because of the exchanging of hands -- and there's of course the amazing thing that people adopted a common convention in order to do so: money. Short distance trade, by contrast, tended to be exchanges of goods of equal worth, and didn't necessarily need money. There's this equation:

M₁ -> G₁ -> M₂ -> G₂ -> M₃ -> G₃...

where M₁ < M₃. Cool, huh?

The last class I'm taking is a Technology and International Development class at Mudd. Again, lots of reading but some really AWESOME discussions. OMG. Sometimes I feel like this class is one I've been waiting to take my whole life. Many of us kids at ISM have parents who work in the development industry, working with governments, funneling huge amounts of money and time and expertise into projects that are intended to alleviate poverty and develop the economies of countries. But are they really working? Some things work and others don't. The professor is a visiting professor from the Colorado School of Mines, and she seems awesome :) She did a lot of work studying the development industry in Indonesia. Anyway, I've been thinking a lot about the topics that the class is studying, and I feel like dammit, it would be wonderful to read papers and talk to smart Mudd kids about it. It's something I've been fascinated with for a long time but haven't had a venue to really think and discuss it critically, except maybe to my international friends. Or close friends like Mike and Maddalena and Justin. A classroom setting with fellow Mudders would be awesome. Especially, I find listening to everyone's opinions and preconceptions and responses immensely fascinating.

I'm glad I waited to take Mudd hums in classes I'd really like. (I previously have only done offcampus hums, Sociocultural Anthro at Pitzer and Comparative Govt at CMC)

That said, my schedule is wayyy packed. I'm going to try to do better in Organic *crosses fingers* and I still have to figure out what I'm gonna do about research during the semester, because I'm still equivocal about some decisions I need to make.

And now for round three!

2006-08-26T08:24:00.000+08:00

Hello jeeks!

Classes started three days back and everything is already pretty hectic. I am serving on the Womens resource center student advisory council this year and am very excited about it. I am also helping the new director organize "feminist fridays" where people just bring a bag lunch and discuss various issues. To encourage discussion, I decided to come up with some topics/questions that can get people talking. And when I was doing this, I thought it would be interesting to know your opinions on the issues. The one I am most interested in right now, is the conflict between ancient customs in other cultures and the attempt of western feminists to "help" women of other cultures. For instance, the idea that the veil is very oppressive to women. But do you guys think that western women really have the right to decide whats best for women in the middle east? Or do you see it more as a global issue with absolute definitions about what is oppression? I would love to hear what you have to say about this. I guess other related questions I will pose at these lunches are about female circumcision in Africa and arranged marriages in India...
I was also thinking about discussions on Title IX or female stereotypes in the workplace and whether women embracing their sexuality reinforces the image of women as sex objects or does it empower them and make them more emotionally independent. Anyway, if theres other interesting topics of debate you can think of I would love to hear from you guys :D
This is going to be a busy semester, but I hope I can read more about your wonderfully fascinating lives :)

Love,
Adhira

Pointy rain in HK

2006-08-16T16:45:00.000+08:00

Hey, Margaret, what do you think about this one?

Aug 3rd 2006 | HONG KONG
From The Economist print edition
When hope goes out of the window in Hong Kong, the furniture often follows

“NEW YORK rain” is the local term for water that drips, annoyingly, from air-conditioners onto passers-by. In Hong Kong unwary pedestrians face more dangerous precipitation. On July 22nd a 78-year-old woman was rushed to hospital after a pair of scissors, hurled from a multi-storey building, lodged in her skull. The same day, a 28-year-old man in another part of the city suffered cuts after another pair of scissors hit him on the head, while a boy survived a brush with an iron bar lobbed from yet another high-rise window.

Despite all the modern sanitation at their disposal, many Hong Kong citizens still seem to prefer chucking rubbish out of the nearest window. As any housing estate resident will confirm, as well as a regular rain of beer cans and cigarette butts, other objects—used packets of Viagra, dirty cat litter, glass bottles, mattresses and even refrigerators—also fly past the window. Much of this is plain bad manners. But some also blame rising inequality for the downpour, which appears to be getting worse. Much of the object-throwing takes place in the city's public housing estates, where many of Hong Kong's poorer people live cramped together in tiny apartments. Many of their shoddily constructed buildings are crumbling: among the most common objects falling out of windows last summer were the windows themselves. As a result, the government had to spend HK$68m ($9m) on emergency maintenance of its housing.

Though the economy's recovery since the panic over the respiratory disease SARS in 2003 has lifted living standards, the fortunes of workers have lagged behind those of the middle classes. If people cannot heave their political masters out of office, they can at least heave a broken television out of the window. Given the mainland's far greater economic and social disparities, the authorities in Beijing must be hoping that this is one trend that does not spread north.

http://www.economist.com/world/asia/displaystory.cfm?story_id=7253202

I'm doing okay here in Rome, work is the same, and none too exciting (rolling budgets, whoo), weekends are spent getting to know the city better, and sometimes meeting up with friends :)

Languages

2006-07-24T20:19:00.000+08:00

Margaret and I got into a nice little debate regarding a post on her blog about cultural awareness and how one picks it up. Just wanted to give the rest of the Jeeks a heads up in case anyone else had something interesting to say, as this kind of reminded me of the kind of discussions we used to have at lunch! (It's a post she made in July so if you go through the archives it will be easy to find. I feel a bit bad directing everyone to her blog but hey ;) )

But yes, in conclusion I can agree that lots of people seem to absorb nothing of the environment they're in, and that those of us who are lucky enough to have our own miniature World in our group of friends should always make a point of questioning, and learning! I'm learning alot about African superstitions and practices from my Ghanian and Cameroonian lunchmates. Enough of my speech-like soliloquy.

I'm learning how to drive! Being Italy ('It's like being back in Africa!' said one frustrated Niger co-worker about damn Italian red tape and bureaucracy...), my 'pink slip' (Foglio Rosa), which I need to be able to start lessons, took months and months to do. For some reason they wouldn't accept my ID card (which clearly states on the back that THIS IS AN OFFICIAL PROOF OF ID ISSUED BY THE ITALIAN FOREIGN AFFAIRS MINISTRY), so they wasted loads of time processing it.

To make things worse, the slip is only valid for 6 months, within which you have to take a theory and driving exam. Which would be FINE if :

1. They didn't close for the entire month of August
2. I didn't have to go to University for 3 of those months!

So it's going to be crazy. So I had my first driving lesson (grace, I need tips from you! If you ever check this anymore, you...) and my dad took me out to coach me yesterday, which was much better... Although he was positively flipping out at the beginning, a real bundle of nerves. Hehe. But I did well and got up to 3rd gear!

More updates are required from all of you, pronto!

New Summer Plans!

2006-07-14T01:25:00.000+08:00

I have new summer plans, since my parents convinced me that going to Manila was a bad idea, especially since they have sold all the beds and most of the furniture, it's dusty and that they are packing up everything.

Mike and I will be leaving LAX on Friday Aug 4 and arriving in Hong Kong on Aug 6ish. We'll have maybe 9 days in which to have tons of fun in the city and plan a short trip to Macau. Then he'll leave on the 14th, and I'll still have a little more than a week and a half in Hong Kong to do more fun stuff, especially with Joyce.

I talked to her yesterday and Sorrento sounds great :) And yes we have cable internet. Hurrah! For being connected to the world. Not being connected was my least favorite aspect of visiting Hong Kong.

So I'm not visiting Manila, but my family is planning a trip there Christmas time becuase ADB is paying for it. And that's a good time to go to the beach and other fun things, unlike "summer", which is typhoon-season.

So yes, you guys will probably see me then!

A third voice chimes in...

2006-07-07T18:45:00.000+08:00

Hi guys!

I actually tried to update on here on Monday but then I accidentally reset the computer and kind of forgot about it! On to me later.

Tia, your maths research sounds very interesting. But also abstract! I'ld probably sit there all week trying to figure out and understand the premises. I miss Maths Higher though, I feel like it really pushed me towards excellence. Also thanks to the terror I felt when I slipped behind. (I can't remember how to integrate :'(...) Don't worry, I have yet to kick off my summer as well. My internship is starting off but everyone's mega busy - so busy they don't have time to teach me the groundwork so I can help (or so I theorise) the matter of the fact is that I have done about 2 days work all week long. But I've met some really interesting people, and I hope I'll be meeting more and more interns as time goes on. And since all Italians (and my division is all Italian 'cept for the bossette, who is Australian), take holidays July-August things will quieten down and I think I'll need to start doing stuff to make sure things keep running. Anyway, keep warm in Texas!

Margie, I'm glad the operation went well, sorry I didn't reply earlier, I'ld read about your musings in your own blog ages ago. Well, now you don't need to wear glasses you lucky gel! My eyes are progressively getting worse and worse... sigh, one day I'd like to get it done as well! But I saw a scary documentary once about people who's eyes are not suitable for it and the evil doctors do it anyway and they have bleary vision for life. Did you come across that in your research (of Lasik and not your hardcore one). And hoorah for getting Mike to come see your home. I'd love for Eddy to meet my family (in cambodia/taiwan) one day.

I'm very impressed by the sciency people here (everyone but me?!), you learn practical knowledge which can immediately be applied in a lab scenario. I learn management techniques and how to evaluate financial decisions but it's not like they let the intern do that kind of thing! It's all very detached for me. I want something I can sink my teeth into!

Funny story about my first day of work: I had bought new heels (lowish... though I got tremendous blisters when I tried them out for a day... but I must develop heel immunity!) for work but decided that on my first day I'd go with something comfy and flat. I have orange flat shoes but I thought they would be too gaudy so I pulled out some ancient (owned them since 7th grade) jesus sandals and wore them. My supervisor met me, and complained about the gardener having tracked dirt all over the reception. I'd seen the gardener while I was waiting so I just nodded.
To cut a long story short, my sandals were disintegrating. I found out when I sat down and noticed a very obvious trail of black plastic fluff ending at my feet. Worst first day ever. (Spent picking up the bigger chunks off the floor when no one was looking!)

Did we tell you? I went to visit Grace in Manchester during one of the last days I was in the UK. Manchester is huuuuuge. Felt like a total country bumpkin from Nottingham. Have 2-3 pics but you probably won't see them until I'm back at uni. Definitely have plans to go back for shopping next year :D Gracie cooked some delicious meals for me (mmm spring rolls) and it was great all in all! Oh well, back to twiddling my thumbs again...

BBC world... (I've been checking out some lecture notes for my courses next year... Oh my god. How am I going to manage a first degree with that material?! I'm thinking of putting the idle time to good use and begin reading some of the e-journals...)

Wow

2006-07-05T03:53:00.000+08:00

Can you believe we haven't all been together for two years? I miss you guys sometimes.

I may have mentioned this before, but my family is moving from Manila to Hong Kong this September. My Dad retired from ADB this summer, and Joyce will be starting the next school year at AIS, the American International School in Hong Kong. (I wanted her to go to either the Li Po Chun United World College which is excellent or King George V, which is this other good school that follows the British model, but applications had already closed when she applied). Anyway, most of my family is in Hong Kong right now, they're living in the sweet condo that my parents bought a few years back. It's in a new part of Tsim Tsa Tsui, kind of expat-ish but still on Kowloon side. When Mike and I are done with research (July 29), we'll take a week off and visit his house for a few days, then he's coming with me to Hong Kong and Manila. It'll probably be my last regular visit to Manila, but since tickets are cheap ($200-ish depending what airline) and it's less than an hour away I'll probably still visit, esp to see Asti, Tae-Yeoun, Devika and others that still live there. Gracia, I'm still up for any trip with you and Asti to Indonesia anytime.

I'm excited to live in Hong Kong for several reasons. I'm a lot more independent there, I can go out and do whatever I want because public transport is great. It's generally exciting than Manila, not that much more expensive (except for movie theaters, which *are* expensive, and shopping which isn't as cheap as in the Philippines). I'm glad my family will have our own place and we won't have to live in a room above my grandparent's shop. I'm excited to have more opportunities to really practice and advance my cantonese. In addition, more travel in Southeast Asia would be nicer and easier from Hong Kong, since flights from there go out to everywhere, everyday.

Anyway, I also wanted to tell you guys that I got laser surgery last Friday, and I had LASIK in the left eye and both PRK and PTK in the right eye to treat both the corneal abrasions and the refractive error. And I'm healing nicely, my left eye sees perfectly and my right eye is a little blurry since it's still healing, but it will get there. Yea! I'm on my way to perfect 20/20 vision. If you want to hear the details of the surgery it's actually really interesting what they can do now, but I won't talk about it in this post.

Adhira, I owe you a call. I'll remember to do it once I get off work later today :)
Tia, it's great to hear about your research! Hey, whatever you're doing it's really important because you're learning and you'll grow up to be a really awesome and important scientist, and you know it!

Freezing in Texas

2006-07-05T01:58:00.000+08:00

Specifically, in my room. I had to wear a sweatshirt and long pants and still needed to curl under a blanket last night...

Anyway, I keep wondering how everybody is doing. In particular, it seems that we haven't heard the longest from ... Grace! Yes, you, Grace. I hope you're still alive and having lots of fun.

My research is going okay. I haven't gotten any results until this morning, and even the one I did this morning is super-trivial. To be honest, I'm not having a blast this summer. (I don't exactly get along well with my roommate, and again, I haven't gotten much math results. Oh well...)

Errh, and just for fun, I will attempt to explain what my math research is about, roughly. (Feel free to skip this whole section... I am just having too much free time slash being lazy...)

---
So our problem concerns something called "Block monoids". A monoid is basically a set containing objects (let's say, numbers) that has special properties: it has to have an identity the operation has to be closed and associative. (Margie and Tani: Remember groups that we did in IBH math? monoids are basically groups where we are not guaranteed to have inverses.)

Here, our monoids contain "blocks" over the integers. A block is a zero sequence, which is a sequence of numbers where if we sum up all the numbers in this sequence, we get zero. A minimal zero sequence is a zero sequence that does not contain any smaller zero sequence. So let's say I have (-2, -3, -4, 4, 5), which is a zero sequence that is not minimal, since (-2, -3, 5) and (-4, 4) are contained in it (and these smaller zero sequences are minimal).

To cut things short, our problem has something to do with 'factorization' of zero sequences, i.e. splitting zero sequences to minimal zero sequences. It is interesting because in general they don't factor uniquely. And we can even have monoids where zero sequences factor into different numbers of minimal zero sequences, etc.
---

(Yeah, solving this problem will definitely save the world.)

Well, I think I am going to have lunch now... And continue saving the world...

Margie speaks!

2006-06-17T17:43:00.000+08:00

My phone in the US is 909--896--6249! Definitely call me. That's my cellphone, my room phone for the summer (here till July 29) is 909--607--1426. My summer has so far been a bit interesting.. Some medical problems because I got an allergic reaction to a reagent I was using in peptide synthesis, DCC (dicyclohexyl carbodiimide). Apparently its a potent allergen and sensitizer but my professor forgot to mention it. Tia, I'm working with Prof Baker and Prof Duncan (he's leaving Pomona after this summer). I'm doing organic/polymer synthesis using chitosan, derived from chitin which is found in shrimp shells and other crustaceans. I'm not supposed to talk too much about my research to people other than those involved, but basically I'm functionalizing arginine (an amino acid) to the chitosan to make it more antibacterial. It's been found in the past to really wipe out the buggers, while leaving human cells intact. But I'm optimizing, experimenting with the details of the process, since there are a number of complications *wink* and other cool things that happen. The goal is to create materials for bandages (Hemcon chitosan-based bandages are already being used in the military to stop severe bleeding) and a number of other even cooler applications.

Another thing I'm having to deal with is the corneal abrasions in my right eye. I'm planning to get laser treatment on my right eye for them, since they keep occuring and are pretty painful and take a while to heal. PTK (phototherapeutic keratectomy) costs at lot and insurance won't cover it, but the good thing is that depending on how much they trim the cornea (and allow to regrow), it also corrects the vision in the eye. And its been pretty effective at treating corneal abrasions so they don't occur again.

So I'll almost definitely do that. It costs about $1300 per eye. If I include LASIK for the left eye (heals faster, but only for vision correction), it totals to maybe $2400. I also just got my medical bills, after insurance paid for quite a large percentage (70% for non-preferred providers and 90% for preferred providers like my opthalmologist/corneal specialist) -- thankfully its not a HUGE medical bill but still considerable (about $350).

Blah! I just want to get well and stay well! Also, I feel bad because Mike is being really really supportive and understanding and taking me to the doctors and drugstore several times a week. What a wonderful panda.

Hey Adhira, buy some rice! It's super cheap and with a small saucepot you can actually really easily make steamed rice (contrary to what most people think, you don't need a rice cooker to make rice). It's just a good, healthy food to have on hand so you don't starve -- and of course you can eat it with other stuff. This is a good walkthrough ---> http://www.eatingchina.com/recipes.html#rice
(I know it's chinese-style steamed rice but the concept is really similar)

Where are the Tani's and Gracia's! I miss you guys and our lively conversations.

Tia, Gena and I are having fun but it's still not the same without you around :) I did something REALLY dumb and tried to microwave something in a metal saucepot. Yes, I realize you shouldn't put metal in a microwave, it gets VERY hot. So I need a new one... going to Goodwill and some garage sales for fun tomorrow.

Definitely trying to excercise again, it helps me feel good :D

Love, Margie

Back in school :) / :(

2006-06-17T01:25:00.000+08:00

Hello everyone!

So, I was in Manila for about two weeks and now I am back at Bucknell. I am doing research, so far its just getting familiarised with the three programs I will be using and doing some basic simulations of electrical impulses in the heart. Apart from that I also have some 200 pages of people's PhD papers to read by Monday. So I am spending about 10 hours everyday working. But on the plus side, the reading is quite interesting, though very tiring (it takes me about 45 minutes to get through one page and understand it.)

I am living in an apartment over the summer. So theres a kitchen and everything, but I dont have any food to cook. This is what you get by going to such a small town... I need to find someone with a car so I can go grocery shopping and stop eating the nasty cup-o-noodles :p I also have no bedding or pillows, so basically I am living like a pauper... except that i sleep in a room instead of a bench on the street :D

I did absolutely nothing in Manila, and that was probably my last trip there (my parents will be leaving the Philippines before December). I was sad that I couldnt see any of you this summer...

Tia: Thank you! I wasnt even home on my birthday but it was lots of fun :D What research are you doing there? There are some REU students here from Texas... and a lot of other universities. Are you doing the REU program as well? Oh and France sounds awesome! Are you going there by yourself or via a program? Anyeay, I hope you are having fun in Texas

Tani: You are probably in Sicily right now... How were finals? You will be in your final year now! Thats pretty exciting eh? Oh and songs from the cd you sent were playing a few minutes ago, thats what reminded me to update on the blog :p Did I ever thank you for the songs? I hope I did, but if not, THANKS! I love the songs :D

Margie: Its really cool that students have a say in the dining services! I think you would be awesome as the dining chair! Btw, what are you doing this summer? And is your phone number the same? I can call and talk to you!

Gracie: WHERE ARE YOU?! How was Egypt? Looks like Gracie's forgotten all about us little people from Manila :D

Hope you are all having a great summer. Its beautiful out and I get to be stuck in front of a computer for hours more! YAY!

Whoops... Happy Belated Birthday, Adhira!

2006-06-04T09:28:00.000+08:00

Adhira, I'm really really sorry! It's way past your birthday, but I hope you had an awesome one! Where are you and what are you doing right now? Is school over? Are you doing research? Are you going home? Are your parents still in Manila? Are you going home to Manila this winter break?

I'm in Texas right now. Research will start on Monday, but I've met several people; the rest are coming tomorrow. It's very warm (or, I should say, it's hot, but it's not too bad yet) and nice. I think I enjoy the humidity a lot. It's less humid than the Philippines, but it's much less dry than in Claremont.

(I'm currently in agony because I just came back from swimming (they have a really nice 50 meter long swimming pool) and I'm really thirsty but the vending machine wouldn't take my dollar bills and I don't have enough coins... ergh!)

There is this really good and relatively cheap mexican food restaurant nearby which we have been going to everyday for lunch. They make the best tortillas!

Looking to hear more from all of you!

-Tia

In the thick of revision...

2006-05-15T20:44:00.000+08:00

Hey guys, did you know that I check this every day? Well I do.

Tia - no our lectures end at least a week before the first exam, so this week here is the AAAAAH! week where we all try to second-guess the upcoming exam, but are also making summer plans and want to just loll about outside with friend... sigh! My last exam is on the 2nd of June, then I will hang about for a week or so before I go to Sicily again, but this time Eddy let me bring my friends up (another couple) so that should be great fun :) I hope he likes my friends!

You sound like you're doing loads, france (wow! I need to brush up my speaking too), maths tutor, and dorm co-pres? Well done :D

Margo, do you know about those positions you applied to yet? I ran for a couple of things myself with the Student Union, and landed a position on the Audit Committee and as a sub-campus representative :D That series of pics really makes Mudders look awesome, like learned, friendly people. The fashion victims here just make my lip curl. But that's also me. I am on the lookout for the 'Invisible children' documentary you mentioned.

Grace, you are a lazy tease. Update about Easter already! How are your exams coming? What I'm revising for now, 'International Firms', reminds me of IB Economics, but much much worse :(

And Adhira, what kind of research will you be doing do you know? I forgot you lot were a scientific bunch :P I also have a question for you all - if you were BARRED from doing the degree you're currently doing, what would you have done? I think I would have gone into linguistics, or anthropology...

Hope you all enjoy Manila and get to see as much of each other as possible...

Hey guys :D

2006-05-03T08:25:00.000+08:00

Hmm even though Tanika has already seen this picture, I'll put it up since its a recent pikachu of me.

Tony on the left is Tia's co-president of Case dorm. Yup, Tia's gonna be a dorm president! Thought I should mention that. In the middle is Trang, she helped organize the fundraising for Invisible Children here. I posted about the documentary on my blog. On the right is me, nothing special. I'm going to be the CAP representative of Case dorm next year (on CAP committee that organizes school-subsidized activities and trips). Um, I also submitted a statement to ASHMC, our student body, I'm trying to be food committee chair next year (because dining hall food sux!). Hope that works out. This picture was taken last Friday, during the 5 Class competition held at Mudd.

I really don't read that much. And if I do, I admit that sometimes its a bit at the expense of my schoolwork. I try to read the newspaper more often now, I love the International Herald Tribune for its constant world coverage. Um, I guess I would recommend most strongly Nervous Conditions by Tsitsi Dangaremba. I wrote a very haphazard blog entry about it but I really recommend it as its a great fiction book that addresses postcolonial issues and tragic culture clashes. In one sentence, its about two cousins in Rhodesia (later becomes Zimbabwe), one who grew up in Britain and is back in Rhodesia and the other who is poor and from the provinces about their similarities, differences and problems.

It was a really good book, one that you can really just devour in one very serious day of reading. Tia, if you're interested, Noel has a copy (I borrowed it from him, get it for summer). Anyway, I must be getting back to working on the bio lab report. Great talking to you guys again :D

Yay for jeek updates! Cuute pics Tani :)
(oh yes, that reminds me, Tia, are your photos on exhibit in parsons? if not, I'd still like to see them. do you have a digital SLR? I'm thinking of buying one because my roommate's photos are badass)

wohoo

2006-04-30T16:44:00.000+08:00

Oww, you two look really cute together! : o

I almost forgot that you UK-ers have some holiday followed buy a period of exams. Do you have classes during exams time? I always have this ambiguous feeling towards exams: on one hand, it's nice to not have classes and just study all day. On the other hand, exams make me nervous. Plus you tend to be too impatient to want to finish things up and go off for the summer (or winter) break.

Oh, I haven't read I, Robot. It's good?

Ergh, my reading is pretty mainstream too. Plus I don't actually read that much (school is eating up my life!!!) But I read Margie's reading list, and wow, you read a lot, Margie! Any recommendation for us?

Oh oh oh, I'm super-excited. Well, first of all, I had a hell week last week. I had 3 papers due in addition to some regular hw assignments and a final photography project. I think a bunch of other people had a hellish week too, but I just couldn't handle stress well.

But! I found out that I get this dream job as an AE math tutor. AE (stands for Academic Excellence) is this tutoring program for the required classes mainly taken by freshmen and sophomores. I clearly didn't expect to make it since when I went to some of the tutoring sessions (so they can see if we'd make good tutors or not), there were like ... 3 people needing help and at lest 4 real tutors and 2 applying-to-be-tutors. It's quite scary.

And for super-excited number 2, I am going to France for about a month in August. Yay yay yay. I don't really know how feasible it is, but if you (Grace and Tani) are going to be around in Europe somewhere in August, and are not trapped in school or in a summer job, we should try to meet up.

I will be staying in Paris, taking french classes there. But I'm looking into travelling to places on the weekends. Any recommendation on what to do/where to go?

The boys UK students are back in toooooown.

2006-04-26T07:15:00.000+08:00

Hi all! I also have many pictures to share with you all! Visit my LJ - the sicily post is behind a friends cut so I've put a selection on here :) I'm going to put another one up tomorrow so wait for it!

Just got back to Nottingham yesterday, have exams towards the end of May so need to begin getting a steady stream of work/revision in and I should be fine. Just got back from a very good bandsoc gig (yes, my musical career is ... not there) and still buzzing from the live music.

I'm glad you guys liked the CD! Finallly, you've got them :) I'm trying to brush up on my literature too (because Josie and Margie make me feel like a failure haha) so I recently read I, Robot and Lolita and just took out the hunchback of notre dame... very mainstream, but you've got to start somewhere. I loved I Robot, I recommend it to everyone.

Well, some pictures! (pretty much cut straight out of my journal)

This was still in Rome, at EUR, in the suburbs...

Grumpy man trying to study.

Back in town

2006-04-25T22:52:00.000+08:00

Hi you guys!

I'm back from my travels through Egypt! Pictures and story to come this week (I'm giving myself a specific period so I won't forget... hehe). I'll update as soon as I've unpacked and uploaded the pics. Mucho amore!

Gracie

I am not dead... yet.

2006-04-25T17:57:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't been posting much. Its the same old stuff with lab reports and classes and tests and all that jazz. The stress is really buildng up with finals in about a week... When are you guys coming to the Philippines (if at all). My stay in the Philippines is really limited. Exams start May 4th. I will be in Manila from May 27th to June 13th. After that I will be back at Bucknell doing research (Which I am thrilled about!!!)

In other news, the weather has been pretty unstable... random cold rains, just when you think its a beautiful spring morning. Btw, Tani, I LOVE THE CD!! I was listening to it the other day and it made me go from crappy to happy in a minute :D Margie and Josie, what are your travel plans? And whatever happened to Gracie?! I agree with Tia, we should post more often, even though I dont post much, I constantly check the blog to see whats going on with my favorite jeeks! *mwuah*

O sunny day...

2006-04-21T07:07:00.001+08:00

Hi, I hope you are all enjoying some nice day outdoors. It's been very nice around here this week.

It seems like this is a really busy time for everyone. Our blog hasn't been updated for a while! When will semester end for everybody? Ours (Margie's and mine) will end in ... about three weeks. One more week of classes, one 'dead' week, and one finals week.

Any exciting summer plans?

MARGIE

2006-04-03T04:35:00.000+08:00

Happy birthday! :D

Hope you are having a great time today. I miss you! I will try to call u later tonight. Have a great time! lots of birthday hugs *mwuah*

Be envious :D

2006-03-29T13:35:00.000+08:00

Oooh, so next year Tia and I will be living in adjacent doubles in Case dorm. We're in Topless L. She's rooming with Angela and I'm rooming with Rocio. Isn't that sweet? I'm stoked! :D

La la la, what are your summer plans and/or plans for next year? Tani, you're on Easter Break, tell us what you're doing! :D

Tani!

2006-03-22T11:51:00.000+08:00

So, I decided to put on the CD that you sent, and I really love everything in it! They're awesome, so thanks a lot : )

(By the way, what language is 'Per le mie mani' in? And what does it mean?)

And... I got to the jeekhello file, and you have that really cool British accent! (I still couldn't get over it!--okay, this starts sounding creepy... I will stop). By the way, you have some great view from your room.

About visiting, hey, I might actually be able to visit you and Gracia. Not really sure yet, but I sortof promise my roommate to visit her in England when she's studying abroad there.

I'm working out summer plans, and I might decide to go to France (or alternatively, China) for a few weeks, and ... maybe I can stop by UK too. This is still all fuzzy plans, but I hope things work out.

Hope things are going well.

Tani: Happy -super-belated-birthday!

2006-03-21T02:00:00.000+08:00

Noo... I missed your birthday by ... a long time! Happy birthday, though. I hope it was super-fun.

I just received the cd you sent me yesterday. Thanks a lot, Tani! (for the cd and the wonderfully-illlustrated letter : D ) I haven't listened to the CD yet, but I will soon (really. After this post!)

Things are going somewhat fast here; I seem to be doing homework all the freaking time. It's either that there is so much work or I am not efficient enough. Anyhow, this makes things blurry...

We got our room draw priority numbers yesterday, and this does not make things better. My number is 149 out of around 180 juniors. There will be people studying abroad, so hopefully there is less competition for good rooms. I just want a single next year, I think I wouldn't really care whether it's in a crappy dorm or not. I am even thinking to do an exchange with a student from Scripps if it would give me more chance to get a single room (so, she'll live at Mudd and I'll live at Scripps).

My roommate's number is even worse than mine. Oh, and she's going to study abroad in England next semester. She's applying to ... King's College and one other place in London. Queen Mary? Something like that. (On a side note, we dyed her hair this weekend, and ... I don't think I would ever make a good hairstylist or whatever we call it. Keep that in mind and don't ask me to do anything with your hair!)

No study abroad for me though. I am too attached to Mudd : )

One little thing that I'm pretty happy about is that I got into an math REU (Research Experience for Undergrads) at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas. I'm excited. I wouldn't get paid since REU is funded by a federal agency, but I might be able to get some funding from Mudd. The only problem is that I have sort of told another math prof from UCLA that I would love to work with him this summer. I feel really bad now...

Okay, enough about me. This blog is rather quiet these days... Hopefully everybody will start posting soon : )

Happy belated-birthday Tani!

2006-02-26T15:13:00.000+08:00

Ahh :) when *is* your birthday? I actually don't know what day in February it is, forgive me. And how old are you? :D :D If I remember correctly, you are younger than me, Josie (whose birthday we celebrated) and Gracia. 19? :D

Yay for responsible drinking, good for you Tani :D

Tani, your internship applications sound like my possible graduate school applications. I'm kidding, but I'm scared that's going to happen. Mudd doesn't have inflated gpa's, and I've sort of been observing the seniors in Mike's suite receiving graduate school acceptance(s) and rejections. It's scary. Oh yeah, 3 out of 8 people in his suite are called Michael. Crazy fact. To avoid confusion, they are called Mike, Michael and Taurus (the last one's mine :D)

I applied for Chemistry REU Summer research here @ Harvey Mudd, and I really hope I get a position. I was going to apply to the biology department as well, but I didn't really like their offerings and didn't want to apply unless I really wanted to do their stuff -- esp since if I got any chem research position I would probably just pick it over a bio one. So I hope I get the chemistry research position...

Another potential summer thing I want to do some year (not this year, because its crucial I get my research experiences) is this really cool thing that's completely sponsored by the US Department of State Bureau of Cultural and Educational Affairs, for Critical Language Scholarships. It's for undergraduate and graduate and PhD students and is totally awesome. You basically get full transportation (yes, they pay for the plane flight), full accomodation and you study at one of their American Overseas Research Centers. So there are intensive 6 or 8 week programs in Jordan, Yemen, Tunisia, Egypt to learn Arabic (both the standard and local variety of Arabic). I've been meaning to eventually learn Arabic. I'd be interested in the program in Jordan (a friend of mine has been there, it looks gorgeous) or the one in Egypt.

They also have Turkish in Turkey, and Bangla in Bangladesh, and Bangla, Hindi, Punjabi, and Urdu in India. Anyway, it's only for US citizens so I should take the chance. Maybe next summer, since I have plans for this one. Mike is planning to come home with me over break to Hong Kong and Manila, I really hope so :D This would be after research (*crosses fingers*) since he's applying for research in the CS dept too.

I really wish they had research opportunities and these sort of things over Christmas break. You know, sometimes I just don't want to go home! (Even though a month of eating tropical fruits is fun).

I am also really intrigued by the fact that wow, so many people are gonna be studying abroad! mostly the UK, but also Japan, Korea, Denmark... hehehe I live vicariously, can you tell? I'm not going to study abroad because I like Mudd too much (and I want to take all the chem classes I can get, awesome). But I do want to travel. Josie, how is your idea for the math insitute in ... Austria, is it? How is summer research working out? (Good luck :D) You are seriously one of the most hard-working people at Mudd and you deserve everything.

ok back to work, much love from me <3

p.s. Margie's birthday is April 2. It is easy to remember because it's the day after April Fool's. Remember, Margie was an almost-fool :P

Birthday wooo let's get waasteeeeed! (No no no no no!)

2006-02-24T17:15:00.000+08:00

Thanks guys, I am horrible at remembering stuff about you, seriously, when it's someone's b-day can someone tip me off? Or I will forget like a sucker. It's not that I don't care, honest! But anyway, thanks a bunch y'all, I had a lovely dinner with friends last night, followed by a few drinks (no really, a few. Like... 2?), and the extreme nerdence that is Final Fantasy :D I got some awesome things from them (will LJ about it. Incidentally most exciting things in my LJ are friends only so get back on LJ everyone!

In reply to everyone (ahh yay!):

I am adding Count of Monte Cristo onto my reading list for sure, I decided this year that I will begin working my way through the classics, which is a wonderful breath of fresh air after reading incessantly (who knew business was so reading based?) about the architectural structure of an organisation and the the systematic risk of a portfolio bla bla bla bla.

Looks like everyone's happy with their course! (Mine just gets more and more boring, but I can handle it now, I'm actually doing some semblance of work during term, rather than during exams... stringing cramming sessions in between the exams... urgh!) Tia's talk of Real Analysis goes right over my head!

Is it just me or are Margie and Juhi opposed on their love/hate of organic chem? I declare a thumbwar!

My summer plans are to hopefully get an internship. Unfortunately, I've been rejected from about 8 of the 10 I've applied to - only waiting for Deutsche Bank and L'Oreal now... eek!

A double post! YAY!

2006-02-24T16:21:00.000+08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANI!! (slightly belated)
Hope you had a great time :D

Its my turn!

2006-02-22T13:45:00.000+08:00

Hello fellow jeeks!

I haven't posted in a while, sorry about that. Not much is going on right now, just classes and eating and sleeping (sometimes). The two chem classes are a real pain. I like analytical chem but organic is really not fun (I have a low C right now). I miss our chem classes with Mr.Cowan! (and physics with Tanika was fun too :D, though I wasn't very fond of Mr.Gilmore) Weirdly enough, since I have no math (or physics) classes this sem, I really miss them :p The thing with chem is I feel I understand the concepts, but I just cant memorize anything... But enough about chem.

I really like my women's and gender studies class... we have the most interesting and engaging conversations in class. Its really exciting! I have to find an old person and interview them about their experience with the "second wave" of the LGBT movement. One of the books I have for this class is called "bitches, bimbos and ballbreakers" by the Guerilla gilrs (they are so cool!). Its about female stereotypes and is absolutely hilarious. Its really short, like the size of a big magazine, but so much fun to read! Well anyway, thats all from me now. I gotta go do econ homework, which is turning out to be really more work than I expected. Peace and love to the greatest jeeks to ever walk the face of this earth!

- Adhira

Status report. kind of.

2006-02-17T17:27:00.000+08:00

Yay, everyone is back posting again.

Things are as usual. I'm enjoying my math classes, especially Real Analysis (basically, scrutinizing the set of real numbers). Quantum physics is still passing over my head; it doesn't make perfect sense to me.

We're talking about some very intersting things in in my religious studies class (on Pragmatism) today, based on John Dewey's arguments about how religion should be separated from its supernatural elements. His writings are really interesting; you should read it when you have time.

Oh, and I developed and print my first black and white photos last weekend! Hurrah! I will post some good ones later.

And I can stress out less over the lack of summer research opportunity! Finally, an opportunity to do research this summer is getting closer and more real. A math prof here has a friend at UCLA who is interested in working with a Mudd student over the summer. So, I will see how it goes; I hope it works out. His research interest is number theory (which I totally don't know much about, and didn't do really well at either) but it does sound interesting. I've sent out an application for research somewhere else too, and will be sending two more; I really want to do something interesting this summer.

Oh, and I am really really annoyed at these two really obnoxious guys in my latin ballroom dance class (Margie: missing the classes aren't too bad after all). Errh.

Hey Jeeks!

2006-02-12T13:04:00.000+08:00

I actually took a break from blogging over break because of computer problems, and that malaise sort of extended over into the first few weeks of the semester -- but I'm back on track now :D :D and I'll be contributing a little bit to this place.

Lots of new stuff happened. There's my sexy new convertible tablet pc, which I absolute adore (am actually more motivated to do homework). I really like my classes, except for STEMS (Introduction to Engineering Systems) which is taught really awfully. I'm taking a govt class, lots of chemistry and bio, and am doing chitosan research in Baker's lab. All in all, its 11 hours of lab a week plus 5 classes, but I find it quite satisfying. I really like Carbons a lot -- Vosburg is my favorite professor this year I think, and it just feels so good to be learning organic chemistry again, which is what I'm really interested in :)

I'm reading The Count of Monte Cristo, and its absolutely delicious :D Who doesn't like reading about getting revenge? I love the Count's character. He is the epitome of cool :D By the way, Tani, you might like it :) It's kind of a dark book and is a fast read. I've been meaning to read it since the 4th grade when Tae-Yeoun recommended it to me, and darn, I wish I read it earlier. It's one of those books you just gotta read when you're younger -- you know, when you're kind of young and naive and you're just starting reading to read books that have mature themes (about loneliness, dying, sex, love, evil) and you realize that ahh you can learn so much about human nature and what adults are really like -- just from books? Yeah, this is one of the those books that induces that feeling.

Also, I have a really big movie recommendation. Kinsey. Tia would especially like this one, I think. Its about Alfred Kinsey, one of the pioneers of human sexuality research. It's on the network ;) do check it out one of these weekends

I <3 you guys,
Margie

Listening to: 32 Flavors - Ani DiFranco

Dot

2006-02-12T01:20:00.000+08:00

Where is everyone? I don't believe for a second that nothing exciting's been happening to all of you recently.

Me, I averaged a 65% in my exams (so so... not too happy), went on a wonderful one-night trip to Stonehenge and Bath with Eddy (hooray for his car!), I finally watched the Corporation (thanks for reviewing it a while ago Margie!)- twice in fact, to absorb it all... I wonder if it's worth reading the book now?

I'm finally beginning to feel like a real business student, I actually find the finance side of things very interesting (this has also increased my disdain at all accounting practices though...), and have applied for internships but am getting a stream of "no"s so far... I blame it on my need for a working permit, which firms can't be bothered with...

Your go!

PS. I didn't see Adhira's post until now? I'm sorry :( And I am missing everyone's birthday, it's really disgraceful sorry! Happy birthday all!

PPS. You know those CDs you were meant to be getting 3 months ago? They ended up sitting around in my friend's flat all this time, because he forgot to post them along with his other letters?! WHAT. This shall be sorted out soon.

Happy Birthda Josie!

2006-01-22T12:17:00.000+08:00

So... what are the plans for tonight? Hope you have tons of fun today! I am duty today so I have to hurry now and do rounds of the building and bust some drunk people :D

I am sorry I haven't been very active gurls, but I will update again soon (with pics of manila). How is this semester shaping up to be for everyone? Good luck with those exams Tani!

(I miss the sun and the beaches)

My deferred Taxes Exams

2006-01-09T15:30:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone!

I guess things are kicking up again for all of us - I have 5 exams to do over the next month! The bane of my existence, Financial Management, actually did away with my appetite over the last week of holidays (stress and anxiety?) but I think I've found my foothold now, so I will be slaving away over here.

Hope the holidays were wonderful, the beachside trip, from the one photo Asti posted in her journal, looks absolutely stunning, I wish I could have gone! Please fill me in! How is old Philippines then? There seemed to be alot of school-related reunions going on. I want to hear from all of you!

I spent 1 of 3 weeks just catching up with Eddy, another 1 (while he was in Turkey with family) playing tennis with my dad and getting started on work, and 1 getting depressed and questioning where my life was going and trying to hammer finance into my head. All peppered with christmas parties, redecorating the house, going to the hot springs, going to ski! I got a good break, so I need to launch myself back into working.

Maybe I'm growing up, maybe I've grown soft, I don't know, but I don't seem to argue with my dad anymore. I used to do so regularly and they were very hostile and tense. It scares me to think of what he does everyday at home, practically alone, watching TV and reading his Economist. It makes me really sad but I don't know what I can do about it. And I realised that even if I was home, I never really talked to him, it's always on the observation level - 'Oh it's cold today', 'This show looks good', 'I like that car', 'Hey she looks funny'.

Which led me onto thinking that, if I actually spent term time studying and doing notes on the way (which I haven't really been... no, I haven't been that good at all really, though I do that tiny bit more than everyone else, it really isn't enough), I could devote more time to spending holidays with the people I should be spending them with!

Therefore, have a good new year! I'm off to read a textbook start to finish...

Shuttle Talk

2006-01-04T11:50:00.000+08:00

Shuttle:
Yes, let's share a ride! Gena is also coming back through LAX, and she's arriving around noon, a bit earlier than my plane, so the three of us can go back together. My plane is Cathay Pacific CX0882, will land at LAX on 13 Jan at 12:50PM.

College Talk:
Yeah, let's give one (hey, let's ask if we can give it on the 12th?) Yeah, you can email Vicky, that's up to you. And then... let's meet before that (like, in the morning) to organise what we're going to talk about and who's going to say what (just some general outline so we can cover everything we want to say).

Gizmo Project

2006-01-04T00:24:00.000+08:00

Hey guys!

I tried out using Gizmo Project with a friend of mine, and it rocks! Oh my gosh, making long distance calls for free over the internet is awesome :) It's free and open-source, and better than Skype (which is proprietary). You can make conference calls with a maximum of 10 people (Skype only allows 3), and the sound quality is pretty good! Definitely better than Skype when I first tried it. Anyway, I have a microphone and headset, so if you ever want to get in touch with me (and each other), try it out! :)

my username is chashiineriiya, give me a ring!

Hey Tia!

2006-01-04T00:18:00.000+08:00

Hey Tia! :D

Glad to hear you're back :) Hey, I wanted to ask you if you were still interested in doing a college talk at school (starts on the 10th, I guess we leave on the 13th) on Harvey Mudd. If you're interested, let me know and I can email Vicky or something. Otherwise, we could just give our info and materials to the guidance office, that works as well (since the schedule is a little tight).

Let me also know your flight details if you want to share a shuttle back to Mudd! I'll let you know as soon as I get mine (My dad has booked for me it for me on the 13th, but I don't have the details on hand at the moment).

Gracia, Asti and I are going to Antulang (http://www.antulang.com) on the 6th! I wish you could come, but I wasn't in touch with you :( Have you met up with Adhira yet? She's island hopping with her parents and I haven't seen her because she left right as I arrived in Manila on the 27th).

Happy Birthday, Grace!

2006-01-03T19:28:00.000+08:00

Ugh, yeah... it IS late. But still, happy birthday! Hope it was fun : D
Hey, when are you travelling around the Philippines with Margie? Let's meet up some time before and/or after that! I hope there is time

boo!

2005-12-26T09:46:00.000+08:00

I'm leaving on Jan 11 Josie. Call when you come back! It's my b-day on the 27th remember? So i'd like to do a little something-something. :-)

Happy New Years!

Hey Grace!

2005-12-25T01:12:00.000+08:00

When did you arrive? I'm currently here, but we're going to Indonesia tomorrow morning and will be back after New Year. How long are you staying?

In Manila! Get in Touch!

2005-12-24T18:24:00.000+08:00

Hey you all,

When are you (Josie + Margie) coming to Manila?? Adhira and I have been in touch but we no nothing of your whereabouts. My number is 0906 354 3876. Get in touch! Margie, are you still up for a beach trip?

Gracia

Juanes, music

2005-12-05T19:05:00.000+08:00

Well, I'm a corporate yuppie so I only know La camisa negra because it was really big in Rome. Unfortunately, I had to pull that off the CD though :( I had purchaed it off iTunes and I don't think it let me burn it into a coherent thing on the CD. It's all a bit of a mess actually.

In Taniworld... I have a psychology paper due in this friday, about the similiarities and differences between visual perception and visual imagery. I promised myself I'd do it over the weekend. I slept through Sunday. All sunday. All. So I started my essay at 11pm and finished at 5am the next morning. Student4lyfe!!!!!lol.

I don't really like how it turned out. I haven't written a 'scientific' paper in ages, so I'm really beating myself up over it. I didn't even reach the word count and I was convinced I'd go over! Boo.

thoughts on music

2005-12-02T11:08:00.000+08:00

Hey Tani, are you into other Juanes' stuff? Because he is really good. Hooray for music in Spanish. (I also like Mana, and admittedly, Shakira)

La Camisa Negra is a good song. Except I've only heard the Buena Vista Social Club version. If you like Cuban music, that is a great album to listen to -- it won a couple grammies a few years back. This american guy, Ry Cooder, went to Cuba because he wanted to find a lot of Cuban musicians who had been inactive since Fidel Castro came to power. The album is the result of getting them back in the studio. It features some pretty famous Cuban musicians, Ibrahim Ferrer, Eliades Ochoa, Compay Segundo, Rubén González.. anyway, if you want a copy, let me know!

Love, Margie

p.s. excited to get your cd :)

These Cds are rubbish

2005-12-02T02:04:00.000+08:00

Right... so, I bought 700 mb ones, when iTunes tells me I only have like, 17 mb? (or was it 70 mb) worth to put on it. So... I bought the wrong CDs... then... er... I wanted to put a vid on it, so that took me ages to figure out (yes, I'm not very good at this.) now that they are done, I was going to write out the songlist by hand... but... when I put it in my laptop it just comes out as individual files, rather than playin iTunes... (let me know what happens here), and it won't even play on my discman.

And if you look at the back, it's only burned like 1 cm into it... what a waste! I'm sorry about my incompetence. I hope you all enjoy anyway... *kicks self*

Oh... and... I was going to surprise you all by changing the songs about. Hopefully they are well named. If you are confused, just post it on here and I'll try to clarify... Oh dear.

Hi! Address Lameness

2005-11-29T01:31:00.000+08:00

Please don't beat me guys/girls/damn political correctness (winterlights, mumble grumble).

With the exception of maybe margaret's address I'll have to ask all of you to e-mail me your addresses again. I KNOW i should keep them someplace safe where I will remember, but... I can't remember :'(

I'll try to make it worth it?

Usurping Margie - my own mail run

2005-11-28T00:23:00.000+08:00

Hi all,

Sorry Margaret, my lack of response in now way means that I didn't care about your fight with the science-beast. I'm sure you are well over it already anyway. It's cool that you would challenge yourself like that. Next year, for my optionals, I'm just going to put in 'soft' first year modules for every one, to take the edge off the degree as a whole (film studies, here I come!).

Life here is alright, I have fallen into a trap of non-work however (I should have started on my Psych essay a week ago, for example. I'm telling myself I'll do it tonight). And feel rather like a worthless pig at the moment, but being around you people, and talking to all my hardworking friends will surely guilt me back into shape.

In the meantime though, I am also going to send you all my little letters and a CD... for now, this is the playlist (I can't remember if I've ever done you guys a CD before, have I? Because I remember recommending loads of songs for all, and I didn't want to put the same ones on the CD... do let me know... if you can be bothered to check, which is not necessary).

Ha, now that I've updated along with Josie (why the hating? :) ), I can badger the rest of you now. We don't do thanksgiving here. We have turkey for Xmas though (Crimbo?!), but it's always dry and I don't know why people eat it.

Tani, over and out!

2005-11-27T11:47:00.000+08:00

I know... it's kind of quiet these days. But I don't have that much to talk about either.

I thought I was done with my schedule for next semester, but I figured out that I got into a photography class that I really want to take (wohoo!), and I am considering to take one more math class although I still don't know what other math class I want to take.

Pretty excited to go home this winter break. This is that time of the semester when you're quite fed up with studying and working, and just want to give up everything. (Erhhh... I hate everything! hate hate hate)

I hope everybody had a nice thanksgiving : )

So quiet!

2005-11-16T14:55:00.000+08:00

It's oh so quiet on this blog! :P Where is everyone? We're all busy, I know, but anything awesome happen to you guys? What is everyone studying or reading about, that makes them want to sit up and shout? :) Any good music from the non-music-agnostics?

<3
Margie

p.s. I'll share. I'm excited about the government class I'll most likely be taking next semester. It's an introductory course to comparative politics and the way in which governments are properly analyzed and evaluated. Lots of case studies from major countries of the world, and lots of reading. But sure to be fascinating, I think! I'm thinking about doing a political science/int'l relations concentration, btw. I adore anthro but its easy to learn on my own time.

No plans for thanksgiving except to read Learning Capitalist Culture and write a paper on it for anthro class. I'm happy because I'm downloading Harold and Maude from bittorrent. I've been looking for a copy for ages!! Supposed to be the funniest ever. It's a cult film made in 1971, a comedy about life and death that involves a depressed, mock-suicide-obsessed 20-something boy Harold and his friendship with a Maude, an old lady who hasn't lost her spark yet. She's a total hoot and drives a motorcycle. He meets her, announces he's going to marry her! Its crazy...

:)

2005-11-09T05:28:00.000+08:00

No no, don't worry. That's my reasoning too. I'd rather be a dumb kid at Mudd who still manages to learn and keep up, than a stellar student elsewhere. Besides, I do well in Chemistry. It's just physics that gets me down. I'm not planning on transferring, no way. I've not failed a class yet. My lowest grade here has been a C and I plan to keep it that way.

2005-11-09T02:57:00.000+08:00

Hey Margie,

Don't feel too bad. I never feel like I know math and science anymore either. I agree about having to struggle through everything. Everything is so hard and there are always people who do well nevertheless. Mudd is a crushing place in some sense, but when you go out to the real world, everything becomes much easier because real world is just not as crazy. It's not that we don't do well, but there are just so much we have to learn and there are just a lot of people who are very smart (this doesn't mean that we are idiots, it's just that these people are probably among the top some-really-small-fraction of the smartest and most insane people).

I don't know, but I would rather be among the "stupid" in a place like Mudd than be the smartest person elsewhere. And I think everybody here struggles, if not all the time, at least at some point : )

Promise me you won't transfer or do anything like that! There are so many people leaving this semester... It's really sad.

Margie and the Physics Monster

2005-11-08T08:55:00.000+08:00

it is like David and Goliath, except that the Physics monster is currently kicking my ass. I got my 2nd midterm back today... have a measly 54, and that's actually an improvement over my 36 on the first midterm. Yes. I am that awful at E+M. Prof Chen calculated the score I'd have to get on the final to get a C in the class, and its a 67 or so. Which I am not sure I'll be able to pull off. If I study, maybe, but there's no guarantee because of the way that I am at physics. Frequently sloppy and sometimes misconceived. Evidence: I missed 5 points on the first problem, just because I forgot there were 2 semicircle current loops instead of 1 and forgot to multiply my calculated B field by 2. And later on the multiple-choice section I miss half the points because I am not thinking the right way, or deep enough about the problems. Plus numerous other things.

*Sigh* I could live with this 54 if I had gotten it on the 1st midterm instead of this one, and improved from that. Arrr. *Why* did I have to fuck myself up with such a lame no-brain score on the first midterm? (Each midterm is worth 20% of the grade) It just drags everything I do from now on down. Chen says, don't worry about what happened before, just work on understanding not just the mechanics of individual problems but on your understanding of all the theory all put together. And currently I haven't really got that yet. I guess I'm not thinking hard enough when I'm doing the problems, haven't been applying a good physical intuition... because I'm not sure I even have one.

I could complain about how I've never been good with physics or math (and I feel like E+M just combines how uncomfortable I am with physics concepts with my sloppiness with math) -- how difficult physics is getting for me now (compared with high-school level, where's it was relatively easy, where I managed to do well because I pestered teachers with questions about little difficulties before they got big, studied my butt off, and basically hit myself over the head with concepts a 1000 times over before I got it right). Also, I miss quizzes. It's such a baby thing but I really do.

Chen says that when she knew I was going into her recitation section, she already knew that my physics was weak... I should have gone to her earlier for help. Before the first midterm, and made her quiz me on stuff. Seriously, the glaring mistakes I made could have been rectified easily.

I'm basically publishing my scores online to demonstrate how little shame I have about physics. I don't have any pride, I don't think I'm good at all. I'm awful. I don't care about if people think I'm stupid because I admit outright I don't understand things, and I don't care about building up any sort of "smart Margie" image. I just want to understand physics for once, and eventually get things right, ultimately understand it in the end.

Math and science honestly don't come easy for me. I live with this fact, but should remember that all it means that I just need to work that much more than everyone else to keep up. I know I can do it. It's harder at college, but I've done it before, I can do this.

I do love science, it really inspires and challenges me in ways that art and the humanities could never match up to. But fuck, its so hard.

FYI

2005-11-07T14:14:00.000+08:00

Hey Gracia, I'm arriving in Manila late afternoon, January 3. So I'll be back just in time for our trip :)

Love,
Margie

:D

2005-11-07T07:53:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I'm in, Gracia! Just emailed my dad the dates so he can start booking tickets for me. Can't wait :D

Eek! I'm working on finishing up my anthro paper for tuesday because I have two midterms, on wednesday and thurs (pchem and anthro). I'm done with e+m tonight, but have a shitload of pchem for after dinner. Ack! I figured out my schedule for next semester though. Gonna be taking Carbon Compounds + lab, Bio lab, Structure and Function (bio elective), Intro to Comparative Govt at CMC, Intermediate Macroeconomics at CMC, and Beginning Int'l Latin Ballroom Dance and Ballet at Pomona. Did you know that you can fulfill your Hum arts/lit requirement using a performance art class? Its cool :)

Boracay Plans Launched!

2005-11-04T23:20:00.000+08:00

Okay.. so I'm planning to go after New Years... that should be the easiest to plan.

Let me know what you guys think about going from the 4th to the 8th of January? That's from a Wednesday to a Sunday. :-)

Who's in?

We can either just book rooms at some hotel or rent a cottage/bungalow place. I'd like accomodation along the White Beach in Boracay. What do you guys think? There's a map of Boracay on the previous link I gave.

Winter break already! = )

2005-11-04T16:12:00.000+08:00

I'm planning to go back to Indonesia this winter; not for too long though. 2 weeks at the maximum. I don't know when exactly. Scuba diving and going around the philippines sounds fun. I agree with you Grace, we do have to discover something and actually go to places in the Philippines.

Are you looking to go in the beginning or towards the end (of winter break)?

-Tia

2005-10-28T07:32:00.000+08:00

Hi Marg,

I'm not certified... i've done it a couple of times with a instructor. I would eventually like to become certified of course. I think the best time to go would be after New Years. The thing is, I would like to plan it early in order not to risk not going at all. (You know how it goes...) So it'd be great if we can get a definite date set and rooms + flight tickets booked possibly before we even get to the Philippines. I'm starting to have a clearer idea on where exactly I would like to be in Boracay after doing a little research. I think going in a group of 4 would be ideal...

Since we're not going to be in the Phil on time to arrange it, we'd probably need help from our parents to get good deals... domestic deals are always better than the stuff they post for foreign tourists. Somebody would have to book the flight tickets + rooms.

Have a look here:
http://boracayisland.org/index.shtml

Let me know what you think..

Excited Gracie :-)

Gracia!

2005-10-27T11:52:00.000+08:00

Yeah, I'm definitely in. Although I should mention that over christmas I was planning to go island-hopping with Asti and her family. However, I think I just might pass on that and go with you instead, esp since I really want to take a road trip and try scuba-diving!! (Are you certified yet? If not, it would take more than 2 days to get certification, I think.)

Tia and my winter break is from Dec 17 to Jan 15, but I'll probably spend the first 1 and a half weeks in Hong Kong (and maybe go to my Mom's province in Chiu Chou, haven't been there in years), but we'll see. I'll definitely try to fit it in my schedule!

I'd love to hang out on the beach with you. I've never been to Boracay!

<3
Margie

Philippines appeal

2005-10-26T22:21:00.000+08:00

Hi peeps...

Okay, so I'll be stuck in the PH for more than 3 weeks! I booked my flights rather late so there was little flights available. So now I'll be arriving in the PH on Dec 20 and leaving on Jan 11. I've decided to play tourist and actually "discover" something about the PH... so my appeal is: Who wants to go to Boracay or Cebu with me?? I'd like to scuba dive for 2 days and lie on the beach for 2 days... So I'm looking for a trip of about 4 nights 5 days. Who's with me?? Hope you all are. :-)

Love,

Desperate Gracie

Yee!

2005-10-11T13:58:00.000+08:00

Adhira, I left a silly message on your answering machine that only you could find cute :D :D :D

sleepiness in a sunday morning

2005-10-10T02:39:00.000+08:00

Ahaha... I remember that thing (when Tani can't stop laughing). I still haven't checked out the blog. I should do that.

Lamely, my updates below are still more or less the same as my other entries. But ... (I will enumerate them for the sake of variety)

1. I got a credit card!
2. Major declaration time! So we will be officially not 'undecided' anymore. Bio-Chem, Margie? Group theory is cool (reminder of the IB exam.. it's fun..)
3. Swing dancing is cool...
4. I have to do a physics lab summary right now. Grr..
5. I make myself go to Mass every Sunday. It kinda fun actually...
6. I heard there is an earthquake in Asia during mass today. And I was kind of scared for a while. How if it's in the Philippines? Turns out that it's in South Asia (Pakistan and North India). Adhira: Your family and relatives live in the more southern part of India, right? Hope everyone is okay...
7. I have to start calling people, which I always not get around to do.
8. Fall break in a week! yay...

Oh no, fresher's flu

2005-10-07T16:25:00.000+08:00

Hey guys. Yup Margie, I moved into private accommodation (see post below). I'll e-mail you my new address, sorry for the wastage of stamps :( Consdering the you lookalike is an SKII ad, of course she has perfect skin :) Cuter you say? Well, at 26 you'll bloom out of cute, then.

How are the rest of you doing? Can't think of much to say because you haven't posted in ages! Here is a cut and paste from my LJ:

Gospel Choir	Street Jazz
Helping out at nearby Art Gallery	Same old, BandSoc

Which doesn't look like much, when it's in a little 2 by 2 box. But it takes me 40 minutes to get onto most activities, plus I have a new second year workload, plus going out of course...

There, Grace, now you can't say 'What do you do with all your free time? Nyah.

Now I must shower, groceries, come back, and go out for lectures and stuff... going to be another tiring day!

Hey jeeks!

2005-10-06T11:15:00.000+08:00

I really miss you guys! :) Ahh! But of course, I have cute little Tia to cuddle in the meantime :D And of course, Adhira is reachable by her sexy RA telephone. Wah Tanika, the cd I tried to send to you got sent back to me! I says "Royal Mail -- We were unable to deliver this item because the addressee has gone away". It's postmarked Sept 14, 2005. I guess you weren't back at Uni yet? Also, I guess I assumed your address was the same. What is it again? (if not your old one). I'll try posting it again, once I find my stamps...

Hmm. Okay, I owe you and Gracia both some chatting on MSN :) If only Gracia were online more often, and you weren't away so much! I owe you guys an update. Anyway, I'm basically having a lot of fun taking PChem, an applied math class, electricity and magnetism (okay, well, I didn't do well at all on the midterm, but now I have weekly meetings with Professor Chen, and it helped me last year to meet with Prof Eckert, so this should help a lot, esp since Prof Chen is awesome :D) Actually, my first meeting with her she just said outright:
"You're good at math, I can see it"
Me: "What do you mean? I'm terrible at math"
Chen: "No, I know that all asian students are good at math"
Me: "But not me...."
Chen: "Really? But Hong Kong has a good school system"
Me: "I went to a school in the Philippines! Like Tia :P"
Chen: "Oh, but Tia is *very* good at math!"
Me: "Yes, she's much much better than me!"
Chen: "No, everyone's good at different things. You can't be so bad"
Me: "Uh... alright. I'm not bad, just okay.. "

Prof Chen is chinese. I just thought it was funny how she though I was good at math because I was asian... my friends laughed at this because she's said it to other people too :P

Anyway, I've actually been thinking I might be a pure chem major, who just takes a lot of bio classes. Or maybe.. a chem-bio major (the main plan right now) who takes a lot of additional pure chem classes like Inorganic and such. I'm just finding I really love the stuff we're learning in Pchem. It's inspiring :D

Yay for non-freshmen chem classes!

There's a four-credit literature class called: "Literature 117: Major Authors - Dickens, Hardy, and the Victorian Age" taught by Prof Eckert (who is awesome) and Prof Groves here next fall semester and I'm thinking of taking it, especially since it involves a 2 week visit to England. There's a meeting for those interested in a few minutes, and I'm going to go check it out :D I'd love to go to England again!

p.s. I'm not sure that I'd look like that! :D I think I'd be much cuter! ;) She has really pretty [airbrushed] skin though. You flatter me, Tani!

Margaret all the way

2005-09-27T08:26:00.000+08:00

Does no one else think that picture looks like Margo?

The site Adhira stumbled across is:

http://www.thingsmygirlfriendandihavearguedabout.com/ (which, incidentally, is the same site Margaret remembers anyway!)

Hehe, I (naturally) remember that conversation, yeah, I was laughing so much that by the time I said it, it wasn't funny anymore. Aw heck! Hehe it's a pretty good site (although at points it does go on a bit).

Yes, I'm in the UK now. Because I'm lazy, I'll just copy and paste my 'new room' post on my LJ (it's locked behind friends only, so some of you may have missed it...)

View from the door.

I have great projects for my bulletin board. Hopefully I'll get a few prints from deviantart, and really art it up.

My new view! This is into Nottingham town center... the white planet thing you see in the middle is the top of the newish club Oceana.

Round the back. The back entrance is the closest for me, but it's a bit rough in the evenings and I tend to stay away.

En suite.

My working corner!

Actually, it's improved a bit more since then, but another day, another day!
About the calling... I use Skype (this new place doesn't have strange firewalls and stuff... if that's the right word), which is free! So if any of you have it, tell me your username!

Aaah!

2005-09-25T07:25:00.000+08:00

Midterms week is next week. I have three! E+M on Tuesday, P-Chem on Wednesday, and Anthro on Thursday (not so scary). Aaaaahhh. In other news, cool stuff's been happening this weekend :) I hope you all are doing awesome :D

Gracia, are you back in the UK already? What about you Tanika? How's everything going with school and RAing, Adhira? Tia, I actually don't see you as often as I'd like, you seem so busy! Please drop by my suite sometime :D and say hi! Otherwise I shall have to stalk you by other methods :)

I don't remember the conversation you're talking about, Adhira, though we must have had dozens like it :) But are you talking about the website Tanika once told us about, the one by this guy that lists all the things that he and he girlfriend have quarreled about? Tani, if you see this, do you remember the link? :D It was pretty kooky.

Oh yes, this is rather important :) Since its the new semester and everything, you're probably all living in different rooms/dorms -- I don't know any of your cellphone numbers (except for Gracia and Tia), do you have different phone numbers?! :D This is mainly aimed at ADHIRA, because she's the jeek in the US (besides Tia and me). I need your room phone number, juhi! But I would love your phone numbers, jeeks in the UK, because I'd like to call you guys sometime, too! My cell number in the US is still the same :) email me if you don't know it.

Weirdosity raised to infinity!!

2005-09-21T03:16:00.000+08:00

OK, first of, I don't know why I remember this particular conversation from almost two years back or if any of you remember it... But, this is what one would have seen if they had been at our table at the ISM cafeteria, one fine afternoon:

As usual we were having our jeeky conversations and the topic had shifted to the differences in European countries. Tanika, then mentioned about this blog type thing that she was reading online about a Brit married to a German girl... She tried to tell us a joke about German showers, but was incapacitated by laughter and could not speak... Being as contagious as her laughter is, we all started laughing our heads off and didnt even know what the joke was about. Finally, after about forty five minutes, just before its time to go to class, she blurts out the joke: "German showers are not massages like they claim to be. They are more like being 'Jumped by thugs'".

Two years later, sitting on my bed in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, I come across a random website and find it ver entertaining. After reading the logs for a while, I come accross this:

"Thus, she got one fitted when we moved to the new house here and it is, indeed, German. Now, as much as I'm against the feebleness of British showers, I must ask if it's entirely necessary that a shower should hurt? This thing has a setting called 'massage' and it's not a massage. A massage involves relaxation, the soft, enquiring hands of a 22-year-old Scandinavian woman, and possibly an exchange of cash. The setting on this shower ought more accurately to be labelled 'Jumped By Thugs', you could mount the thing on top of a truck and use it to crush riots."

!!!!!!! I have no words to explain or understand the extent of this coincidence... Especially considering that I dont usually remember conversations very well. When I saw the phrase "jumped by thugs" my jaw just dropped :D I probably remember it because Tani had kept us in suspense about teh joke for 45 minutes... :p

I miss the times we enjoyed during break! Those were the days...

LJ gearing up

2005-09-17T18:48:00.000+08:00

Some of my pics are up.

Taken at a department store in Taiwan. It really reminded me of Margie, maybe 5 years on! :) (Incidentally, the jeek playlist looks very interesting! I'm tickled by the BEP presence haha).

Adhira, I've just come back to Nottingham two nights ago! (Don't have coathangers or anything! Help!) I can't believe you've been there for awhile now, hopefully in a week I'll be all good to go and really get down to studying.

Gracia, I can train to Manchester for about £15 I think! Maybe even less. Let me know when, and I'll try to book that in quick (you'll have to pick me up from the station, of course). Can't wait to see your new crib.

Josie the professorette :) Grading must get so tiring! I've always wondered how teachers can stand the repetitiveness, year on year...

Gracie here!

2005-09-12T08:12:00.000+08:00

Hi hi!

It's my penultimate week in the States. You guys can reach me at 303 665 4167 until Sunday morning 18th of Sept. I'll be heading back to Nashville. I think I'm going to be driving... I don't think I've ever driven such a huge distance so it'll be exciting. I'm going to be in the Smoky Mountains for a couple of days after I check out in Nashville with my whole crazy team. It should be good fun although I'm not at all excited to miss one day of university and not to mention the whole registration week and jetlag to fight off for a whole week. Ah well, tough luck! You only live once!

I better hear from ya'll before I go! *grin*

Gracie

P.S. Do you guys notice when we post we ALL post! And then when we don't post we ALL don't post... it's kinda a chain effect thing! ;-)

La la la...

2005-09-11T23:41:00.000+08:00

Hi everybody. Ohh.. why am I updating??? I don't really have anything new; this will be one of my boring entries. Everything is just as usual: there are a lot of work, both homework and workwork. I'm grading homework for a freshman math and a freshman physics classes, which takes a hell lot of time. I spend up to 4 hours grading the math homework and up to 2 hours grading physics, and I do each of them twice a week. Nevertheless, it's a nice job.

Adhira: Ooh, that's really great! I'm sure you'll really enjoy it, although it can be frustrating sometimes, especially if the students aren't really interested in the subject. Haha... you're not alone; at least there is me who doesn't have a life either. We should be in a club!

Margie: I got your music! But I haven't listened to it yet. I will get around to do it some time : )

jeek playlist

2005-09-11T08:36:00.000+08:00

Heehee, I was just thinking the same, Adhira! This is the playlist for the cd's I sent you guys :D love, Margie

p.s. Gracia, are you still in Colorado? Can I still call you using the number I used last time?

Since no one else wants to update....

2005-09-11T07:17:00.000+08:00

I dont really have much to say... I just want our blog to be "updated" :p
The work load is getting heavier by the day and even teh weekends are becoming stressful. BUT its not all bad, I dont mind doing all the work coz it keeps me from realizing that I dont have a life :)

Gracia: The AIDS paper seemed very interesting. I only read parts of it (its looong). But, I found the parts that i did read, very educational. The statistics are pretty mind-boggling. I promise I'll read the whole thing once the craziness around here reduces a bit.

Josie: Haven't heard from you in soooo long. How is everything going? I thought you might wanna know that I decided to tutor freshmen for physics :D It should be fun... lets see how that goes...

Margie: I cant wait to get your CD! It sounds really awesome :D Thank you for being such a sweetheart! How are classes going? And tell me more about how things are going with Michael ;)

Tani: I am so jealous of your summer... Sounds like you had quite an adventure... I know what you mean about being on the "home country" line... Thats how I had felt when I went o India last december, minus the irony... It feels good :D

I have to go do rounds now... Hope no one is drunk tonight :) Bye!

Added You!

2005-09-01T02:27:00.000+08:00

Okie, I added you on facebook. :-) I thought I did already

facebook is silly

2005-09-01T00:48:00.000+08:00

Aah! You're invisible on facebook. Add me as your friend, Gracia Margaret Nauli Samosir-Harianjaaaa :D

HIV/AIDS Viewpoint

2005-08-31T09:00:00.000+08:00

Okie, so I'm still in Colorado! And yes, I'm still alive... I should probably call you American-kids up again. :-) Or you can call me! :-)

Tani: Am sorry if this post bores you to death but I thought the other *JEEKS* might enjoy it. You, me and Vince should definitely hang out. He's really awesome. We love to diss the British society *grin*.

Okay, so this is a sneakpeek of what my EpidemicAlert! blog will be like. I've recently been reading up on the issue of HIV/AIDS and I've come accross so many interesting articles that opposes the orthodox view of HIV/AIDS. Remember a while back South African President Mbaki casted his doubts on the link between HIV and AIDS?! The whole world pretty much scorned him!! Well, it turns out that the President wasn't such an idiot or a naive person at all and had every right to inquire further before investing in a costly HIV/AIDS program.

Perhaps the person who is most known for opposing the orthodox theory of HIV/AIDS is Professor Duesberg (whom President Mbaki consulted). This guy isn't a dumbass from somewhere. For years he has been closely associated with Robert Gallo (co-discoverer of HIV). Duesberg is a German professor who studied chemistry at universities in Wurzburg, Basel, Munich and Frankfurt. He has won numerous awards for his work in cancer research and virology. He was once even candidate for the Nobel Prize and taught at the Max Planck Institut and at the University of California in Berkeley (still teaches there). Both his parents are doctors. After he claimed that HIV is not responsible for the loss of immune system in patients, he basically got marginalised by the scientific community and stripped off his research grants by the federal government in the States.

I have been reading some of his papers, interviews and keynote speeches (most of them dating ten years back when the debate was most heated). I found so many surprising evidence for his case. I had never realised before the extent to which HIV/AIDS has become a political and moral issue aggravated by scientific hubris on the part of scientists who all racing to become the first to find a *cure* for any emerging diseases. I found for example that HIV doesn't behave like any other retrovirus ever studied. Duesberg also argues that if AIDS is an infectious disease, then the effects would be immediate and there would not be a latency period of 10 years. He instead claims that AIDS is caused mainly by exposure to toxicity over time because the disease is not equally distributed between sexes and not randomly distributed within the population. (I still have to check the statistics for this though).

I have always known that when HIV testing is performed, the medics don't look for the actual virus but anti-bodies that the body produces against it. But normally, when the body produces antibodies, it's an indication that the body has triumphed over the intruder. Duesberg's opposition claims that HIV eventually kills T-cells (which produces these antibodies) which is mainly responsible for human's immune system. However, when HIV was grown in T-cells in a lab, it was found that it could not kill the cells. Oh, and hear this, 38% of diseases associated with AIDS (acquired IMMUNODEFICIENCY syndrome) has nothing to do with loss of the immune system!!! Did you know that there are AIDS cases without HIV infection?

Now, this said, I'm not saying that I agree with Duesberg's claims. I mean, I need to further scruntinize the evidence to be able to make a sound judgement. What I find alarming is how close-minded the scientific community can be. The thought that billions and billions of dollars is going to only ONE single direction of approaching a devastating disease is alarming. Any person opposing the orthodox view of the how HIV infection progresses to AIDS becomes an instant laughing stock, a mockery. It's scary to think that something else might be causing the diminishing immune system in AIDS patients when all the research is solely focused on studying HIV. It's tragic to think that it's only now that scientists have FINALLY started to consider the possibility of co-factors causing AIDS. In my opinion, nothing kills science more than a one-track mind!

So guys, if you have time, please read this article! It's really fascinating and it's only the tip of the iceberg. It's an interview with Prof. Duesberg. He explains everything in rather simple terms for the general audience to understand. :-)
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/bginterview.htm

If you want to read something a bit more scientific, read his paper:
http://www.virusmyth.net/aids/data/pddrchemical.pdf

Tell me what you think jeeks! :-)

Tani’s wanderings in Asia.

2005-08-28T03:16:00.000+08:00

Hi Jeeks! It was a great pleasure reading all your posts and finding out what you’ve all been up to! Before I start rambling about what I’ve been doing these last three weeks, (picture posts when I get to the UK…), I’m going to reply to your posts first!

Margie:
I got your postcard! You’re too good to us all! I hope I still have your addresses somewhere around, because I promise I will send you all a letter (and a mix CD then, to continue our HS habits of spreading our music to the other jeeks!) this year! Dance-y music is all good! I’m currently listening to some Japanese weird music, and the rest falls into three broad categories – rocky/punky, weird/techno, and jazzy/rnb.

Cathay economy is not bad at all! After all, it’s not like we’re long-legged, and can’t fit into the seats. I didn’t have time to check into your blog, but rest assured that once I get back to the UK, since I’m arriving 10 days before school starts, I’ll catch up! I’ve never flown with a friend either! It’d made everything so interesting…

Hey, yes I speak Mandarin! * huffy* My Taiwanese family don’t really speak English! I just learned them naturally, really. That sounds like I’m showing off, but I’m not really. What I mean is that I learnt them through no real effort on my part – it’s just how my family and my life turned out to be.

Adhira:
Hello! It’s strange to think that you’re all back at school again! Yes, do come visit! And don’t worry about seeing me again, I’m sure it will happen again in one shape or another, we belong to the international network after all ☺ And we have this blog in the meantime! Your stolen bag sounds like a nuisance! Sounds like you’re not all that bothered anyway though.

I’m glad that RA training is proving to be interesting (although busy). Haha I suppose it’s not really an age thing but ‘knowing where things are and how they work’ kind of superiority you’re banking on here. Sounds like the experience is kicking off this year in the right direction.

Josephina:
What’s Phil Airlines like? I’ve never flown… since I’ve now developed a real paranoid fear of planes (urgh after the Cyprus+ Venezuela+ Peru and oh yeah Montreal crashes this summer) I wouldn’t trust Phil Air!

I’m looking forward to this second year too! I’ve got many plans for study discipline, and cooking (I’ve already gotten an orange collection of kitchenware!) and my band, joining more societies, and friends etc. I know it’s going to be harder than I now wishfully think, but it’s really the year I need to buckle down!

Gracia:
Ah I see you’ve met another group of people! Your social empire grows! They look friendly ☺ Refresh my memory (which was never there) – where are you now? Let me know about your house warming, meanwhile I’ll look into how much a ticket over costs! Vince promised me to teach me how to salsa or something muhaha.

Psh you flatter me ☺ Thanks for the support though! Now you’ve made me want to practice violin and piano so it won’t be so much of a lie! :p As for the placement, I agree with Margaret – go for it – do you have to do it this year or can you choose when to? Because I’ld also do it after two years of study first, get some theory down. Get a taste of slavery, so you can face the horrors upon graduation!

The Post:
Ah finally! (After what are essentially 5 e-mails…) On August 3rd I hopped onto a plane to start what would be a Ta-Ni-(ta)-Ka holiday. I visited Taiwan, Japan, and Cambodia, all my home countries in one way or another.

In Taiwan I met my maternal side of the family, rediscovered bonds to a cousin I’d never been that close to, and realised that I don’t hate my kid cousins all that much. I managed to understand how sad it must be for my grandparents, both who live in a house too big for them, and who are riddled with all kinds of sickness, my grandmother is in a wheelchair and my grandfather can’t really walk beyond 500m. I listened to their stories about the Japanese occupation, and how my grandfather cried in the direction of Tokyo when Japan lost (utterly brainwashed). Talked to all my aunts and uncles about my future, and uni life, acted as a translator for my dad, who doesn’t speak Mandarin.

Then I went to Japan for a couple of days – mostly shopping, since what family we have in Yokohama, my dad has quarrelled with. I met two Japanese friends from ISM and went shopping in the trendy Harajuku. You know how upon immigration at the airport you always have the ‘foreigners’ line and the ‘locals’ line? For the first time in 5 years, I got to be in the super privileged ‘returning to home country’ line! They said ‘welcome home’ and everything. It was all deliciously ironic. Like… ‘this is my home country?’

You know how my dad managed to get to Japanese on a scholarship programme? Well, he went with a group of Cambodians, and in Japan we met up with them, now married to Japanese women, each with a few kids. It was really interesting to see other Cambodian mixes, how you can pick out the Khmer features… Although their ID crisis wasn’t all that complicated in the end.

Then I returned to Taiwan (again!) to carry out a ceremony for my mom, it was the first time I saw my grandfather crying. Then more family dinners, then off to Cambodia.

Stayed in Cambodia for a week, went to Siem Riep (where the historic Angkor Wat is) for one night, to check out the plots of land my dad had bought, then went to Kompong Som (the one and only Cambodian port) for a 3-night beach holiday with my aunt and 4 of my cousins. We can’t really communicate, there were some frustrations like not being able to tell off the boys (aged 3.5 and 10) when they misbehaved, and observing how my aunt brought them up, accepting their selfishness and stuff. But on the other hand, I got to read a lot, and in the last few days I got my cousins to teach me some Khmer by drawing pictures! ‘Tau niek chol chet chmaa ru te?’ (Do you like cats?) Haha.

Finally, I stayed in Hong Kong one night, and stayed almost one day – took a very basic tour. So I saw the skyrises of HK and Tokyo, the dirt poor naked kids in the Cambodian country, I reconnected with family on both sides, and tried to observe the teen culture and trends in each country I went to. It was really interesting, I think I’ve come back a bit more grown up ☺.

ah-choo! ah-choo! I shower you with many blessings

2005-08-24T23:45:00.000+08:00

I'm in a silly mood *points up at title to demonstrate*

Heehee Tia :) I'm so excited I'm going back to Mudd with you. Oh no! I'll be so jealous if you upgrade to business class. I won't be allowed to by my dad, to him its excessive (he on the other hand goes on mission riding business class). But oh well, the people in economy are usually friendlier anyway. Hey, I was wondering, if you're in economy after all (cathay pacific economy is decent, though I don't think any better than philippine airlines) do you want to try to get seats together? Or not.. I promise I won't drool on you :D Just think its an interesting adventure, I've never traveled with a friend before :) except for Shyama, when we both first went to CTY.

Hehe, that *is* pretty funny :) I'm glad your dad didn't change the flight!

Adhira! :D I made the cd mix for you like I promised. Actually, I made 3 other copies of the mix (with Lunasa, some hindi music, and other bits) for all the rest of you. You'll get them in post (adhira, Gracia, Tani) or in person (tia) :D It's just happy dance-y music I think you'd all like. yes yes?

Blob of things

2005-08-23T00:13:00.000+08:00

Haha, you know what's funny, Margie? Apparently, my dad was contacting two different travel agents because he couldn't book a return flight on the day we have to move out from the dorms. He got the morning flight from Manila to HK to LA, but somehow he found out from the other travel agent that the afternoon flight (your former flight) was open and almost moved me to that one, after you moved to the morning one, which would have ruined the plan! Anyway, it's all good now, hehe : D

Ahh... I want lots of mileage too! My goal is to upgrade to business class so I can sleep better. Although that depends... maybe Cathay has better seats compared to Philippine Airlines.

Phew... Hey Adhira, how's being an RA? Has anyone come up to you for help? : D

Hm. It's pretty weird because I somehow can't wait for classes to start. I'm really scared too, though... Classes would be really tough this semester. Plus, I think I have overloaded myself with too many jobs/extracurricular things, which would be quite deadly.

UK people! How are you guys?

Tani, have you come back from that almost-around-the-world trip? : )

Grace: Still surviving that summer job? How much longer are you staying in the states? I probably should check that blog again for more Grace-pictures/updates.
Hm... About your self-slavery question: I don't know... so you will be just working in that one year? Without taking any academic classes or anything? If that job is more of an internship/training thing, I guess it'll be useful for future employment after you graduate, right? You'd be more experienced, etc. If I were you, I won't rush about graduating in 3 years (I kind of like being a student. Prolong that as much as possible! Yeah!) although, that depends on a lot of other things too...

Look! I met Brad Pitt!

2005-08-19T21:39:00.000+08:00

Look! I met Brad Pitt!

ok so I lied, its his wax twin ;)

all this and more on my next post about Hong Kong at Margie's Hideout! Stay tuned :)

p.s. I have enough mileage to fly to New York from LA, probably this Spring Break! Yes yes yes... I can meet up with some of the Columbia kids, maybe Tae-Yeoun and Asti. Plus my cousins, who live in Brooklyn. Woohoo!

My dad talked to your dad, Tia. He says that you might be switching over to Cathay because of some difficulty booking the return flight to Manila using Philippine Airlines? Ooh, I wonder if we might be on the same flight back to Mudd :) That would be cool. Also, do you still want to get together next week? I'd like to see you again! :D

Finally I have internet!

2005-08-16T07:34:00.000+08:00

I am really annoyed because my computers gone nuts and wont connect to the internet and I have been so incredibly busy that I could not get it fixed. Right now I am using the school computers....

Anyway, Gracia we missed you too! And Tani, I really want to visit you coz thats the only way I can see you again! Josie, Margie and I had soooo much fun even if it was only for a day... However, I did have my bag stolen from me and lost my credits cards, my moms cell phone, my health insurance card, ID card, etc. But its fine because the cell phone was old and the insurance is almost expired.

I have been under going rigorous RA training and the amount of knowledge we need to have is just overwhelming! But its fun and I am very excited about my "kids" getting here. Only I realized yesterday that they wont excatly be my kids because one of the risidents I met is a football player and hes huge! He's also a year older than me and so are 15 other students! I am going to keep this as a secret from my residents though. The other RAs are really great people and I feel like I have known them forever... I am not as home sick as I thought I would be simply because they keep us busy the whole day. I do miss the food though, and the jetlag is killing me, but everything still seems to be just great!

Its time for another meeting now *sigh* (We have meetings till 10 pm somedays...)

I really miss you guys, I wish I can see you guys during christmas break... PLEASE COME TO MANILA! I hardly feel satisfied about our one day together :( Bye!

Pictures of my summer job!

2005-08-15T13:01:00.000+08:00

Hi you guys!

Check out the pics of Grace's summer adventure at http://howzat2005.blogspot.com!

Margie's two cents

2005-08-14T11:13:00.000+08:00

Ooh Tanika can speak Mandarin? And French? I didn't know that! How do you learn all these things?! OMG OMG OMG drool ;) you language sponge you

Yeah definitely Gracia, you should take the chance to get some work experience. It'll be so invaluable. But probably after your second year though, or at least after your third semester (do you guys work on the semester system too?) because you want to get most of your studying done before then :D Anyway, that's Margie's two cents on the matter!

Ooh Tia (Josie)! :) I forgot to ask you about something, do you guys pay extra for the medical insurance that Mudd provides? Or do you just use the Belgian-based ADB medical insurance. Asking because last semester I paid extra, but am wondering whether I should renew the insurance, because technically I do have insurance, with ADB. It's a difference of a couple hundred dollars... so saving that would be nice :) Dunno, what are you doing?

Adhira! It was incredible seeing you again in Manila! I hope your trip back to Lewisburg was relaxing and reasonable, not like that infuriating almost-48-hr trip you told us about, from India to New Jersey to Pennsylvania.

I wuv you guys :D

Tani is secretly polishing her CV too!! Ha!

2005-08-13T01:18:00.000+08:00

Ha! This is from a creative, musically talented, internationally-oriented girl who recently volunteered at a UN-body (WFP), speaks 5 languages, three of which are official UN languages (English, French and Mandarin) AND is studying in a Top 10 UK University! Now Tani, you gotta admit that you've got a tinge of ambition to say the least!

And no, I don't want to work... working is shit! I want to study as long as possible but alas, that is not to be... How come nobody has taken my placement-question-plea seriously? People!!

Should I ENSLAVE myself NOW or LATER?

Grace shows off by speaking french!

2005-08-12T18:25:00.000+08:00

Margie you're HK pics are great! I like the things you're wearing, I remember the bohemian skirt post you put up!

Grace sounds like she's getting really pulling ahead in this race for total employability. My first year grade's rubbish compared to 75%!

Adhira's looking really curvy and healthy in those photos... Ah of course I remember glorietta. A jeek reunion sounded great. Boo to annoying girl who I can't remember the name of anymore. Samira? Whatever.

I've been to Japan, and I'm in Taiwan again for a week, will go to Cambodia after that!

Je suis jalouse!

2005-08-10T04:57:00.000+08:00

My goodness!

I miss you guys so much! I wish I could have been at the jeek reunion! I'm still stuck in the States doing the sales and management program and am doing my best to finish strong. It doesn't get any easier but at least you know what you have to deal with day by day.

I even made myself some mango shake (like the one Josie is drinking on the pic) just to relive the "tropical life" a little. I was thinking Marg, that unlike the Hong Kong pictures you took, the Manila ones are really selective. You only took pictures of the posh places. :P hehe... But it's all good...

I can't wait until I get back to Manchester. Working is by far less fun than studying. That said, I completed my first year in Manchester with fantastic results. My average in the second semester was a whopping 75.2% (which in British terms is godly, anything over 70% is). Because of that I qualify for a placement year. Basically you get to work in Biotech/pharmaceutical company or healthcare institution or any other place related to your field for a whole year in your third year. That'd mean that my degree will last 4 years instead of the initially planned 3 years. You can work on anything from cloning techniques, cell signalling, teaching, journalism etc. You get to work in a country of your choice (subject to availibility of course) but basically it's a peek of "real life". Now the question is, do I want to be doing that so early in my life? I mean, we've got our whole damned life to work!! And so far, I don't think working is exactly rewarding! You get paid of course but since ADB subsidizes my studies until I'm 24 I'd actually loose out on money. Arrgghhh... HELP! I need to make up my mind by early September and my parents are putting this matter in my own hands.

Input please... :-)

Love you all

By the way, I've got pics to post soon.. so look out for them.

60% Jeek Reunion

2005-08-09T20:36:00.000+08:00

So we had a 60% jeek reunion :D :D :D Today Josie and Adhira and I visited school, met teachers again, went out for lunch and a movie (The Wedding Crashers) at Greenbelt 3, just kept on chatting :) Here are pictures! Maybe we'll be inspired to have a full jeek reunion sometime in the near future ;)

in the guidance office :)

er... Spam Jam :P I couldn't resist taking a picture

random victims of spamjam

a silly window-dressing at Goodwill Bookstore. The screen that Jesus is looking at says "I am always online".

a statue for sale: Jesus using a cellphone

does anyone remember glorietta?

Margie thinks Stitch makes a super cute stuffed animal.

ADHIRA and JOSIE

2005-08-07T12:53:00.000+08:00

ADHIRA and JOSIE! I'm back in Manila but I don't have either of your phone numbers. Please email them to me at chashiineriiya-at-gmail-com or give me a call at 632-7724! I really really need to get a hold of you guys :P

ahaha...

2005-07-31T10:04:00.000+08:00

Yeah, thinking about it, our entries are always like that :D

Too ambitious? Really, Margie? Hehe... maybe Gracia : )

You'll be fine, Tani! So you'll be in a dozen countries too in that 20 days! Funn...

(I'm flying too next week, and to be honest, flying Philippines Airlines scares me.)

Adhira: At last! A post from you! I am arriving in Manila on August 8, in the morning. Let's meet up the next day?

Margie: Great to hear that Margie! Oh, and you're taking Chinese too next semester, right? That should be fun. I really want to learn Chinese, but I remember that I want to 'master' French first. And then I came up with an unrelated idea of taking Latin.

Grace: Really, this is your turn to post! Haven't heard much from you since that time when you called!

Nothing too exciting is going on in my life right now.

I'm currently celebrating my last weekend at CTY by doing absolutely nothing. Well, that's not really correct, but all I do since Friday evening is (literally): eat, read, sleep, shower, eat, read, sleep, eat, read, sleep, shower, ... My suitemate is I think in Santa Barbara right now for some wine tasting.

One of my current students is severely homesick. To the point of it being old and annoying. She has some sort of this hysteria thing going on. (By God, it's only three weeks! And her parents live not really far away, maybe around 2 hour drive. I know it's her first time being away from home, but there are so much fun things going on that she could have enjoyed instead of whining about wanting to go home.) I want my other set of students back!

Okayy... I never know how to end a post. So I'll just end it... Here.

Tectonic plates

2005-07-29T14:26:00.000+08:00

I thought I posted... I keep refreshing but the entry doesn't seem to come up. If it does, just delete one of them. Or something.

Hello! Scuba diving in Malaysia sounds cool, is it hard to learn to get the license? I think it's great that both sets of your grandparents are healthy enough to come travel around with you :) So you have to go back to the States in 15 days?

Haha Margie, I can hear you saying "yee" in a little chinese accent! When I go back to Taiwan we can share our exasperation and affection for chinese culture nowadays...

From next week I'll be taking way too many airplane rides in the short span of 20 days. I don't want to tempt you, Mr. Fate, really! I'm flying... Rome-HK (just passing by I'm afraid!) - Taiwan. Then Taiwan-Japan-Taiwan. Then... Taiwan-Cambodia-err HK? Then Rome. Airplanes scare me!

Can't say I'm going to like it, but just wanted to let you all know that I'll be off the radar again for awhile, at least. (PS Margie I sent you an e-mail on your gmail with my replacement photo!). Rome weather is getting more and more unbearably hot! I had to use a fan in the evening for the first time last night!

My month volunteering at the WFP ends today. Thank God for small favours!

Meanwhile, Grace and Josie seem to be doing well... Hmm I feel like I really need to catch up on work experience, but I'll get a job sooner or later, one way or another!

Two un-catching-up points:

Was checking bbc news in the England midlands area - it's almost all about how bad Nottingham is - Illegal bikers are scaring off rare species of birds, prison guards are being told to pay more attention to suicidal inmates, and some kind of investigation is going on because some teenager got mugged and died! Eep, I don't want to go back! I'm worried about going out... Blah.

I can't remember the other one! Take care guys...

PS I found out why my post didn't seem to be appearing - Somehow the date was stuck on July 15.

PPS I don't remember if this is the second point, but the entry is called Tectonic plates because ... err... there's a build up of pressure, and then it's released in one go. Kind of like the way the journal entries are going here!

Hey!

2005-07-29T12:36:00.000+08:00

Hey, its summer! All of you should be posting like mad :) But noo, Josie and Gracia have to be ambitious, working all through summer. And so don't have time to post.

Tanika, I'm so envious of your beaching! Oops, I need to get down to a size where my bikini looks good first, hehe. Rome looks wonderful, sounds really great :) I'm most envious of the weather, its all hot and uncomfortable in Hong Kong.

Adhira, I can't believe you went scuba diving! In Malaysia! I'm so jealous :) What's it like to dive? I can't wait till we see each other again. I'm going to be in Manila by around August 6th. I've lost everyone's phone numbers though, because my sim card has been deactivated (so I don't have a manila cellphone number, don't have my address book). Adhira, do you think that you could send me your phone number by email? And Josie too, thanks.

So Margie has right of abode in Hong Kong! :) You can read about it on my blog, but basically its something I've been wanting for a long time and I finally have it. I'm practically a citizen, yee! I've been studying Cantonese for about 4 weeks now and the term is coming to an end. Have learnt a lot :) and I've got more vocab that I am planning to self study over the christmas break, at least that's the plan. Anyway, I gotta go now, I'll be posting again soon :) Byee!

Hello everyone!

2005-07-28T21:31:00.000+08:00

Sorry I haven't posted in soooo long. Sounds like everyone is having a great summer. Mine ends in about 15 days :( I didn't do too much. Visited Malaysia for a week, took the basic scuba diving course and will get my license in a couple of weeks! Apart from that, just been visting places in the Philippines and mostly relaxing and reading. Btw, all four of my grandparents are here and thats "fun"...

Josie, when are you coming to Manila? Margie you are coming on the 6th right? I am leaving on the 11th so the two of you better hurry up and ge here...

yay

2005-07-19T12:52:00.000+08:00

Sounds like everyone is having a great summer. Yeah Adhira, where are you??? How are you doing? Tell us tell us!

My 13 boys are goneWe had parent-teacher conferences with them and their parents. One of the boy's mom gave me and Damian, the instructor for my class, these little gifts from Korea, which really reminds me of what my parents used to do in the end of school year to my teachers. It's pretty strange to be on the other side of these parent-teacher conferences - being the 'teacher' and commenting on the students' work.

I now have 10 boys and 3 girls (improvement!). They are generally older than the other group (by around 1 year, or maybe less), so this will be interesting. They look like nice kids. We'll see.

Work is still great. Damian is great to work with and is a lot of fun. And he really gives me a chance to lead activities and 'teach' in front of the classroom. I've heard stories from other TA's that they didn't really have a chance to teach a lesson; so this is good.

Some grades from Summer Math are out; quite happy with most of them. (I think I'll be having a collection of various letter grades this summer.)

It's really great to hear from all of you guys! I haven't actually been online for a while, but I shall return more frequently...

Repeating entries

2005-07-15T14:26:00.000+08:00

Grace, you've done it again haven't you! What you're doing sounds hectic but I'm sure it will be an invaluable experience, not to mention goody points for your CV. I wonder if I would have been able to stand up to the challenge. I lean towards a no. But all your planned activities sound like a bunch of fun so you'll be able to indulge in the end I guess! You workaholic.

I'm going to post the pics I posted in my LJ for those of you who don't check it regularly (that would be Grace and Adhira- Adhira, who seems to be online, but unresponsive. Hmmmmm? ;) ).

On the ferry-train (as in the train gets dismounted and put on a train, then put back together at the other end) in the morning.

First day at the beach. Eddy putting rocks on me. Romantic.

Eddy's famous for being a pedant, hence the t-shirt.

Sicilian dinners...

On the cable car up to the town of Taormina.

We did a short hike up Mount Etna. Bugs everywhere, hot as hell, but we made it!

Creepy face-shaped sand dunes.

Coming back down was alot of fun.

A Sicilian barbecue. Note how Valerio (in red), the friendly local guy, is using dried oregano as a brush to brush on the olive oil and vinegar. We had horse meat! It was delicious.

Good night!

View from the bedroom window in the morning, over the little piazza.

Last day on the beach.

Is there a tag to collectively resize pics? ... Margaret?
And what happened to Josie's proliferation of updates?

2005-07-10T01:46:00.000+08:00

Hey people!!
Yes, sorry... summer posts are slow! I'm working my ass off 80+ hours a week, 6 days a week, and thinking about work 24/7.

I'm based in this wonderful little town called Lafayette, North of Denver, Colorado. From where I work I can see the mountains.

Work is insane, I knock on 70+ (sometimes even 100) doors a day. I've met the meanest, craziest, friendliest, dirtiest, grumpiest and any other "-est" you can think of. But people in the States are generally quite receptive to door-to-door sales. I'm amazing how impulsive they are! On a usual day I get offered Gatorades, chocolates, fruits etc. etc. People can be pretty awesome if you keep looking. I'm also getting better at the sales. So I'm quite happy about that. :-)

I'm going to try to get some pictures up. As you all know I'm working to save up for a new digital camera and my roommate's (Georg) camera is also broke. But I'll see whether I can get hold of one so I can take some pictures!

My mom just sent me my international licence so Georg and I are getting a car on Wednesday. It's this black Neon Dodge car. I'm seriously tired of biking my way through my turf. It's friggin' hot and the bag gets quite heavy after a while. I figured we'll be able to sell the car at the end of the summer. It's only 1250 bucks, not much mileage (only 85 000 miles). What's the in km? Can anybody tell me? But it's pretty good seeing that most other cars have gone 200 000+ miles.

So yeah, so far I haven't done much exciting stuff in Colorado besides checking out Boulder. Man! That's such a chilled out city... it almost feels like Europe! They've got the cutest stores, like a mystery book shop, exotic furniture shops, art galleries, ice cream parlours and more! I heard it's the weed capital of Colorado (am not surprised with all the students around).

We'll be doing more exciting things though once all the members of the team start earning some money. I believe we're going white water rafting, canoeing, horseback riding and checking out the mountains. Awesome stuff!

Catch you all later! Keep me updated of your whereabouts. :-)

Gracia

The slow rate of summer posts

2005-07-08T19:10:00.000+08:00

I guess everyone's off being busy at the moment!

Haha Margie, Josie's 13 (was it 14? I forgot already) boyfriends is such a bizarre image. Josie did you get mad and yell at them again, didja, didja?

Basically I am a filing monkey with the WFP - I file bank statements and payment runs in different folders, I photocopy memorandums and run around getting it signed, then go to deposit things/ get things stamped at the bank. Or I attach additional invoices to their original papers etc. Am stealing a lunch break here - my mentor is really busy so she rarely fills up the one hour we're allowed for lunch. So here I am. I'll be doing this for all of July and it's been one week and I'm bored already!

Marg, tell us how your course is going!

Anyone remember when Gracia frees up and gets back? And I wonder what happened to Adhira.

La la la!

2005-07-02T16:05:00.000+08:00

Hey guys! Quick post here, since I've been online long enough :)

I'm in Hong Kong! :) It's really hot and humid (is it like that in Manila, Adhira?) but I'm enjoying eating good food and yummy fruit again. Tanika, your job sounds really awesome :) Tia has thirteen little boyfriends....hee hee! Hey, I read The Labors of Hercules by Agatha Christie (Hercule Poirot's last 12 cases). It was really good.

Pictures: Yeah! Math = Funfunfun

2005-07-01T05:44:00.000+08:00

Oh, that's great, Tani! Congrats! Maybe you can pull a first next year!

And volunteering in the World Food Programme sounds really cool. What do you have to do as a volunteer?

And... Yes, yes... And these are my lovely male classmates, as Tani puts it = D

Rest of the summer? One year down!

2005-06-30T21:27:00.000+08:00

Hi all. I had 10 days in Sicily which were lovely - pictures will be up when I'm back in Nottingham with a decent connection. My average for Year 1 was something like 65 percent (where,s that damn symbol... frnch kbds) which is only a few marks off a first, which is good. Not great, but I may just do it.

Now I'm working with the World Food Programme as a volunteer in their Treasury department. Just for experience because we all have to start somewhere! I've only been for 2 days but it's been good so far. Had to buy me some sensible trousers for work hehe.

My dad found stones in his gall bladder so he had an operation to take them out this Tuesday so I stayed with him in the hospital for 2 nights - am sleeping at home tonight to go to work tomorrow though. It was a tiring and stressful and scary experience (a 30 minute operation which took 2 hours and a harf because of unforeseen difficulties apparently) but it's over and done with!

There's a beauty pageant here called 'Miss Italia nel Mondo' meaning the girls with some italian blood, be it from great grand parents or whatever, come to compete. The Philippines won! Hurrah.

Ooh Josie gets to shine with her all male classmates then! I can't for the life of me try to imagine why you would subject yourself to months of maths though! So I suppose Margie's back in Asia ... somewhere? Sorry guys, I haven't really been able to keep up that much! But keep posting, I do read them

CTY!

2005-06-24T23:05:00.000+08:00

Yessss!!!

I am soooo glad I'm DONE with summer math. I mean, I actually enjoy everything; it's just that the last few days had been hell. I don't think I did so well in the exams - I wished I've had more time to study. But, oh well... Margie: Good luck on the exams!

I got here at Cal. Lutheran yesterday. Yay! I've been writing basically the same thing to my parents and in my LJ, so I'll just repeat everything.

I'll have 15 boys and zero girls in my class. Yes it's a math class and stereotypically math = males, but this is just extreme, even Harvey Mudd isn't that bad. And they will be arriving on Sunday.

The staff members are really cool. A lot of grad students. Some undergrads. Some older people. A lot of them have done CTY in the past, so I think this will be a fun thing to do. And I think there will be less work than at Mudd.

I thought I had a lot more to say, but apparently my mind isn't working very well. I shall inform you of these interesting stuff when I remember later.

And how's everybody else doing? Grace: I hope you're still alive! After hearing about your work, man, it's just crazy! Don't forget to have some fun...

Adhira: Did you find any internship? I hope your summer is fun too! Update, update...

Tani: Yes, I demand updates from you too! I hope summer is going well : )

I'm in the middle of nowhere. of mountains, to be exact...

quick postie

2005-06-23T03:56:00.000+08:00

Oh don't worry Tia, I don't think anyone was bothered :) I just noticed you were more stressed out than usual. Good luck on that multi-v exam I think you're about to start! :D at least you'll be done with everything and out of here by tomorrow. The CTY kids are gonna love you.

Heehee, you should download some of those movies (and six feet under episodes *hint hint*) to your harddrive before your leave Mudd, maybe :)

Yeaa I got a call from Gracia too!

*it's time to do DE's homework now*
ciao!

2005-06-21T16:25:00.000+08:00

Yay, that call from Grace!!

Heheh... that new picture is a proof of me being lazy and trying to find things to do that are not homework.

Yess, less than a week until summer math officially ends! I've been really cranky these days (really really sorry if I annoyed you and (potentially) other people, Margie!); I'm taking my finals a day or two earlier, meaning I have to cram things soon, fast, be even more cranky, then die.

I hope everyone is enjoying their summer! Have anyone seen Batman Begins? I still need to see hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, and other movies, if any.

Telephone numbers

2005-06-14T11:21:00.000+08:00

margie and josie, im in tennessee.. I dont have your phone numbers!! email them pls!! to g.samosir@gmail.com!!