ltns,imya

Phew! Three weeks into the new semester and I felt like I'm almost worned out. It's a good thing that I didn't get enough rest after Korea and came straight to continue my studies, because you know what? If I did, I'd be dead by now.

The demand for a PhD student is indeed no play play.
At least for the first year, my supervisors don't expect me to achieve much in my research but to work well in my classes.

Yes have to attend 6 modules in a year, plus 4 Empirical Research Projects (ERP). You may wonder what ERP is but trust me, it's like a final year project all over! (Shouldn't be unfamiliar to those graduated from MMU hahhaa)

Anyway, at least I know I'd be a smarter person after a year -_-" Thank you.



I didn't spend lots of time in Msia... if you are gonna ask me how much time I stayed in KL, I'd say like, less than 2 weeks. Coz throughout the 3 weeks when I was in "Malaysia", I traveled to Penang for 3 days, Singapore for 2 days, and half of the final week I finally went to Singapore for good.

At least I'm muchhhhhh hangfuk (lucky + happy) here in Spore compared to in Korea, coz......

I can communicate without problem;
I have 2 uncles here, who always bring me to good food (sien la gaining weight :'(..);
I have 4 little cousins to play with;
I have an uncle who brings chinese medicine for me which I think I can only finish in a few days;
...

Ok la the point is I have 2 good uncles here. Get the point?

I think I'm getting incredibly boring as I type.



And I found out I'm still terrific of thunder at night..
and no thanks to the MMU gang who reminded my that the 7th month is here..

Sighs. BUT!!! AGAIN, at least now I won't hesitate anymore when I feel like going home! It's like, HEY! I can go back to KL during weekends!!!! HAHAHAHAHHA damn syok wey.

It's a pleasant change of situation and mood. Seriously.

I miss those ppl in KL I've missed, you know who you are!

I miss Kuching! I miss the people in Kuching whom I haven't seen for so long, and you too know who you are!

Food, much less now coz my uncle fed me so well today I feel like they're coming out of my throat any moment. HAHAHAHA ^___^

And I also miss those ppl whom I've left behind in Korea, seriously hope they're coping well... and I MISS THE 4 SEASONS!!! Wth. I found myself keep asking friends in Korea and China, "How's the weather now?" "Cool already or not?" "Precisely when is autumn coming?!" URGH!!!

But Spore is good. Msia is good even without 4 seasons... just the politics in Msia sucks.

Ok off topic.

Also in case you guys thought I've forgotten you guys - those who left Korea with me! Hahaha one in Kuching another in Ipoh? or KL? and another in France. I'm sure you guys are having hell of a good time like me.

Err wait...I'm not having a good time. Very much ladened with work.

Now I come to think of it, better get back to work. Byebye. and sorry if I'm too incoherent in this post. I just want to let everyone knows that I miss everyone!!! *sighs*

So after reading this post, you should be able to decode my title of the post. HAHAHAHA

skinfood in KR, MY, SG

You know what, I just wanted to say: Skinfood in SG is much cheaper than in Msia!!! WTH!

 

So due to excessive luggage weight, I decided not to bring any NEW skinfood products back from Korea. I thought I could buy them in Msia.

 

Then I went to Queensbay mall. My freaking toner is MYR 55!!  T.T

Ok lemme give you the idea here:

In Korea, a typical meal costs you about KRW 3000, then my toner is around KRW 9000. Or slightly I don't remember. Around 4 meals like that.

In Malaysia, a typical meal costs you about MYR 4.00, then the toner is MYR 55. Around 13 meals!!!!!! Wth.

 

Can you now understand how much my heart bleeds when I saw the price??!?!!!?!

Crap la seriously.

 

Then I came to SG and decided to check the skinfood website in SG.

So in SG, a typical meal costs me about SGD 4.00, then the toner is at SGD 33. Still reasonable compared to Msia la can ar?

 

HAIHHHHHH.

 

 

 

update on me in Sg #1

Oops, I know I said I would update last night (can I delete the previous post? Haha) but the internet connection at the place I stay seriously sucks la.

Ok as most of you have already known, I'm in Singapore now, attached to Singapore Management University, which most of you would then ask: Then are you still studying the same course or doing management?, which I would answer: Still the same course laaa!

Hahah syok sendiri.. ok Sorry.

Anyway, I promised a few people that I'd talk about my accommodation here. So all these while whenever I've seen something or discovered something, I'd thought of blogging them. So this could be a helluva long post or maybe not, coz I tend to get lazier and lazier as I type -_-"

Ok, my room. See? It's so big I can't fit the whole scene into the camera.

Ok sorry again. As you can see, it is air-conditioned, with a fan, and a mini fridge (they told me it is a bar fridge but I don't have anything close to a bar in my room so let's just forget that term), a study table, a chair, a bookshelf, a wardrobe and a beautiful curtain. I'd say it's beautiful coz it doesn't completely make your room a dark room even when you cover the entire window. Oh and the window is huge.. I like! And I kinda like the color of the room too. Looks bright enough.

Then you can see a bed that comes with a mattress and a pillow and a blanket, and a half-length mirror (I like this too!). One thing that makes me quite happy is there are enough wall hangers and sockets in the room. I basically don't need to bring extensions and the like with me. And you can also see that I've brought my own bolster and comforter. Nyeknyek. Easy to guess that I went to Singapore in a car. HAHAHAHA.

You can also see that I put my shoes inside my room. It's not because I'm paranoid that people would steal mine but because my neighbour jammed all their shoes in the shoerack outside. Damn. And here's the bomb: My neighbour are two KOREANS!. WTH. Period.

...and I'm damn lazy to communicate so I'd rather leave them inside the room.

Outer view of my room. Racks provided to hang clothes, and they even have a sheltered place for you to hang and dry your bedsheets etc. Then there is a dustbin for each room outside, which will be emptied every morning by the cleaner. I shall not reveal my room number coz HEY! THIS IS THE WORLD WIDE WEB! Hahahhahaha :P Ok and you can see that on the left is my neighbour's room. So the structure is like, you come in from the corridor, you will face directly to a single room, then a twin-sharing room on your left.

The room's hygiene is to be kept by ourselves la. Then there will be people to service the air-conditioner periodically.

Bathrooms and toilets are shared. Basically there are only 12 people staying on my floor and there are 4 toilets and 4 bathrooms. Never full (oh, please remind me of the MMU hostel nightmare!). Super clean too (yes, please remind me again of the MMU hostel).

And we have a shared washing machine, clothes drying machine (apparently they BBQ your clothes to dry, funny thing.. I still prefer the sun), water cooler, microwave oven, electric cooker and a fridge (obviously I don't need that coz I already have a mini fridge in my room).

So now, the question: How much is the rental? SGD 670, inclusive of electric and water bills (including air-con and fridge). A good bargain I'd say. But there is a rule: The air-conditioner will be switched off centrally every weekdays from 8am-3pm. None of my business coz I'll be in the lab at these times... :D :D :D :D :D :D

It's a 15 mins walk from here to the Uni. Along the road are a 24-hour foodmall, ATMs and Standard Chartered Bank, money changer, A LOT of restaurants, Mc Donald's, Watson's, 7-11 etc. I heard that the cheapest place to get your groceries is at NTUC FairPrice. The 24-hour foodmall used to be that NTUC FairPrice. So I checked on the internet yesterday and found that there is an NTUC FairPrice not far from where I stay... wanted to take a walk to that place this morning but I found out that I'm very lazy today.

Very convenient eh? But one drawback is the internet connection SUCKS!
I couldn't even open my Gmail account last night, let alone coming here and uploading photos.

Ok la I will stop here for now. Suddenly got lazy... or probably I just wanna go pee pee and drink some more water. Last picture:

Singapore is the country of cards. Seriously... I have my foreign identification card, my hostel access card, my university access/student card, EZLink to take buses or MRT, NETS card to pay for the things you buy (not really necessary for you to buy things at stores but when I applied for my student pass, i.e. foreign identification card, at the immigration, I can only pay the SGD60 registration fees using NETS card, which is stupid coz I had to buy the card at 7-11 and top up the card at another 7-11 then only go to a machine and make my payment and get the receipt and go back to the counter), Kopitiam card to get you 20% discount for food (students only) in Kopitiam restaurants. And I haven't gotten my OCBC card yet :) Cheers for the thought!

My aunt told me that she keeps 2 EZLink cards just in case one of them run out of money and she didn't realize. If that happens, they will automatically charge you the full price for the longest trip, depending on whether you're on a bus or an MRT.

One of my fellow coursemate who is a Malaysian but now a PR in Singapore told me that he has two wallets full of cards. So he suggested that as years go by, when I have enough cards, I could go buy a kind of card holder which you can unfold and stretch your collection of cards into a lonnnnnnng row, then when you get on a bus or go through the MRT, just do a swift, kung-fu style swipe.

Ok. I shall stop here. Will talk more when I have the chance :P Till then!

this time two years ago

I was writing the date on my notebook when the tinge of familiarity came over me.

21st August 2009.

Precisely this day on the year 2007, I was on a journey to start my Master's study in Korea.

By this time (2:03pm, or 3:03pm Korean time), I was lost in campus while looking for the location of the lab.

How time flies... and here I am now, doing PhD in Singapore...at least it's nearer from home :D

OK, long time no see.

Hahaa.. I'll be updating probably tonight.

Feels bad to see my blog so neglected. Till then!

Ip Man

Had a very funny conversation with Lifeng yesterday...

LiFeng: Eh, do you know why the movie 叶问 is called "Ip Man"?

SweeWon: That's the Cantonese equivalent what?

LiFeng: Huh?

SweeWon: 叶问 is pronounced as "Ip Man" in Cantonese.

LiFeng: WTH??!!! I thought the movie's name is "Ai-Pee Man", something like spiderman, superman, x-men like that. No wonder I can't find it on Google. Everyone in baidu.com was also wondering the same thing.

SweeWon: (already ROTFLOL)

(Actually I have to confess that I also thought it was pronounced Ai-Pee Man initially. At least for a few days before I realized it was "IP MAN". I think the director purposely play a prank on us all, coz isn't it supposed to be "YIP Man"? Cheh =P)


And I'm going to watch Transformer in iMax this weekend! Hopefully!

This morning Zai came to our breakfast table and put something in front of me. She has just came back from a 5 days trip in Jeju island. We chatted for a while before I realized it was already 9:30am. I hurried off to wear my socks and prepared to go before turning back and took the key chain I left on the table, coz ...






It really looks like her. Hahaha :P


I haven't been up to much things recently. After viva, I'm basically loitering around. Travel, eat, drink, sleep ...what else did I not do?



Last Friday I went to a conference in SamCheok (near the East Sea), a one night stay near the beach and came back on Saturday. No photos coz I didn't bother to bring my camera, have been very half-hearted about everything here now and I am just waiting to leave :D

The trip was worth noting because IT WAS SO BAD! A 5-hour bus trip with the last hour going uphill. Like the one we have in Genting Highland. The bus keeps spinning and spinning around the mountain with terrible road conditions. I endured that for one whole hour before almost puking upon reaching.

Then at 2:30pm, we attended the session where I had my presentation and we left the venue at 4pm where the Koreans then went to the beach. This was when the next terrible thing happened: What? I have to sleep in the same small space with 5 other guys?!

Consideration was definitely missing here. Nvm.

So I slept at 9:30pm and didn't bother to wake up till 6:15am where we had to attend a football competition at 7am. The football here is not like the FIFA kind of football. It's more like our sepak takraw but with a football ball (HAHAH) OK. It was held at the beach, which was REALLY awesome!

Our group didn't take this competition seriously and then deeply regretted when we found out the winner takes home 300k KRW and the first runner up takes home 150k KRW. We were the second runner up and we took home 6 towels. ROTFLOL.



So yea.

On Sunday night we attended a dinner at a Chinese restaurant, eating muttons and alot of other chinese delicacies which I can't even remember the names. A group of 8 and we drank almost 8 bottles of beer. Then we met another group of Chinese friends there, one of them the Chinese Korean in my lab. All born in the 1970s, all married, all fathers or expected fathers.

When we finally joined tables they already had 20 bottles of beer and we went for a second round in a bar. Everyone was happy coz: One of them has graduated with a PhD, 5 of us graduated with Master's, one of them got to know on that day that he is going to be a father, a couple took their wedding photos on that day etc.

The 2nd round was insane. A whole bucket of beers which can fill like 12 glasses of beer was downed in one go. A total of 12 people downed 6 buckets. You can imagine how we looked like when we finally walked out from the bar. But of course, yours truly drank only 3 glasses. HAHAH and I was very conscious. I don't know who drank my share for me though.

We talked a lot, mostly involved relationship, life, and work. Some serious talks, some drunken talks. Some don't remember anything the next day, but I was happy.

Yes.

OK lunch first. Byebye.

reminiscence of the 1990s

Ever since I've submitted my thesis, I have been lepaking allllll the time. No mood to study, no mood to research, no mood to nothing. I come to the lab, sit down and stare at the computer, then I decide to read the news and then I can't stop.

When there's nothing left to read, I play Solitaire. When my eyes start objecting on the load I put on them, I stare at my watch waiting for lunch time.

Then I come back from lunch, read some more news, go to gossip forums and read gossips, and then I don't even know how I managed to spend the 4 hours in the afternoon till dinner time.

Oh crap.

Then last week I found a job to occupy myself - to download chinese songs in the 90s.

You know, at that time there's always talk of the "Four Big Sky King" 四大天王 (hahahah), namely Jacky Cheung, Andy Lau, Leon Lai and Aaron Kwok. In case you are wondering, the order is based on my preference. HAHA. Who doesn't *heart* Jacky Cheung??? HUH?!! Who DOESN'T!!???! *points gun at random* Then Andy Lau, the most most good looking wan. And he makes it big in acting. OK lar also got a few nice songs like my fav 笨小孩 (Stupid Kid) but I freaking hate the way Jacky Wu laughs in that song.

Then Leon Lai, whom I always think is like... is NOT like a guy. Not macho. Sorry and complexion too fair OMG. Finally Aaron Kwok, whom I only remember with Para Para Sakura and 对你爱爱爱不完 *shudders* The other day a friend just acted this 对你爱爱爱不完 posture to me ... *shudders* Oh I know that movie called 父子. Didn't watch coz not very interested in Aaron Kwok, really.

And I told everyone I meet who'd listen that I think Chinese songs now are so crappy. The only good ones are those in the 1990s till prolly 2002? But then, thing is, the songs lyrics in the 1990s are not as canggih as nowadays'. Like the 子曰 by 卜学亮, which has over 800 Chinese characters, no repeat of any parts of the lyrics. Songs in the 1990s most probably have at most 3 paragraphs of maybe less than 150 words? and they are repeated throughout the songs for 3 mins or so, but some with great quality nonetheless. Efficiently express heart-felt emotions! Like...

周传雄's 黄昏：

过完整个夏天 忧伤并没有好一些
开车行驶在公路 无际无边
有离开自己的感觉

。。。

黄昏再美终要黑夜

How does it feel like to be so heartbroken that when you drive on the highway, you feel like you are leaving yourself behind? Of course this can be just a metaphor but I feel it sometimes when I'm driving, like it's just my body and mind on the road but my soul is left somewhere else. Not heartbroken lar, but mostly at troubled times.


张学友's 情网：

请你再为我点上一盏烛光
因为我早已迷失了方向
我掩饰不住的慌张
在迫不及待地张望
深怕这一路是好梦一场

而你是一张无边无际的网
今夜就把我困在网中央
我越陷越深 越迷惘
路越走越远 越漫长
如何我才能捉住你眼光

今夜就这样守在你身旁
今夜就这样一辈子不忘
我打开爱情这扇窗
却看见长夜日凄凉
问你是否会舍得我心伤

I don't really think that you can express something like "I open the windows of love but I see long nights and dreary days" in English, as a song's lyrics (it has to rhyme doesn't it? HAHAH)!

Then:

巫启贤's 思念谁：

你知不知道 思念一个人的滋味
就像喝一杯 冰冷的水
然后用很长很长的时间
一颗一颗 流成热泪

Literally it means: Do you know, that the feeling of missing someone is like drinking a glass of ice water, and slowly turn them into drops of hot tears?

OK I know my translation sucks. AHHAHA

And my personal favourite:

伍思凯's 你爱谁：

每次你在想着谁 就解下了头发任风吹
沉默脸上淌着泪 连哭了都没感觉
我想知道他是谁 可是问到嘴边就后悔
在这温柔的长夜 何必让你流泪

每次你若爱过谁 就剪短了头发到耳垂
消瘦脸庞眼眶黑 我看了都会心碎
从不问你他是谁 就怕泄露心事不自觉
在这温柔的长夜 让你发现我流泪

苦恋的人们都想醉 一触动了心就唉唉唉唉
输了爱情失去一切 却不知道输给谁
苦恋的人们都无悔 一沾上了爱就唉唉唉唉
就算充满了苦与悲 也不会告诉谁

I asked a friend like, so "you lost love, but you don't know to whom you've lost it to" , to yourself? Most probably? Hmmm feel like putting this song to play in this space, for 2 days maybe?
Let me find out how first. HAHA.

That's all for today la. Bubye.