Orientation

Just finished the first two day of orientation!!!!!!!!!!!


Nah, it didn't deserve so many exclamation marks. It was mostly talks and formalities on both days. But it was still fun. Learning the Michigan Fight song was hilarious and the play they put up to describe the “life of an undergraduate student” was entertaining. Getting to meet all the other international students from an AMAZING spread of countries was quite cool too. I met, (in no particular order) a Mexican, an Australian, a Spaniard, a New Jersey native (why she’s international I don’t know) two people from Hong Kong, an English girl and a BOATLOAD of Indians. Oh how could I forget? Out of about 500++ international students, one third or more are Chinese. And special mention goes to this guy living on my floor in my residence hall who’s from Kazakhstan. Cool eh??

Day one comprised of introductions, formal Homeland Department check-in (yea one of those American governmental things) and a campus tour. Everything was alright except the last one. The tour. Not that it was boring. IT WAS IN THE SODDING RAIN. The weather on day one sucked bad. It has been raining incessantly making everything soggy, wet and COLD. Stupid tropical storm Danny (yea that’s what the current hurricane system off the east coast is called) is messing everything up. I was drenched like a dog and we still kept walking. Thank god I didn’t get foot rot or something. But today (Day 2) was just brilliant. It’s nice and sunny, but there’s still a cool breeze flowing non-stop. Day 2 was a bit retarded because all we did was to sit down and listen to stupid talks. The first one was supposed to be designed for us to learn how to properly use the Wolverine Portal system at UofM, but it turned out to be a talk where an old lady was lecturing us on how to use the internet. Pretty much EVERYONE zoned out and went to sleep. The student panel question and answer session was more interesting though.

A couple of days back me and my dad decided to be adventurous and drove all the way down to a place called Auburn hills to meet his friend (mentioned 2 posts ago). Although we did have directions, it was still a bit scary considering that one missed turn and you can end up anywhere. And it was raining. Like hell. Sense a pattern?



Despite all the fun I’m having out here, I’d have to admit that I’m still missing home a bit I guess. It’s just the general Singapore-ness that I’m missing. Anyone who’s lived there and then moved out will know what I’m talking about.

Cheers friends.

Home and Time

Its 6.00am in the morning when I’m writing this so I apologize early for any bad grammar and spelling that might crop up.

I’ve been in Michigan for about 3 days now. And I guess the realization is slowly dawning on me that this is going to be “home” for me for the next 4 years. And as I type that sentence, I wonder, what is home? The place you were born? Or the place where you grew up? Home must surely feel like the place where most of your memories are found right? Homesickness I already gnawing slowly at the outsides of the strong front that I’m trying to put up for the people I meet. What’s made this all worse is the fact that I haven’t been able to get an Internet connection at the place that I’m staying and that’s made talking to and emailing the people I care slightly more vexing. So even though Joan has been an amazing Innkeeper and all, I’m going to be really happy to move out to the Days Inn where a “high-speed internet” (as advertised) connection is available. (EDIT: Yea I’m here now, and the internet is awesome)

Monday was a fun day (I’m going to refrain from using words like yesterday because that could lead to confusion.). After breakfast we walked down to the student services office to get my MCard and my bank account opened. We actually expected it to take a lot longer than what it did, so we ended up with lots of time on our hands. We walked all the way to North Campus (distance close to 7km I think) without even knowing that we walked that far. The weather is one thing that I have really fallen in love with. At least, I’m going to say that until the winter comes around to bite me in the ass. But yesterday it was about 21 degrees Celsius (warm by Michigan fall standards) and it made walking that far amazingly easy. Almost zero perspiration too. Bursley Hall (my dorm) seems to be situated in the middle of some kind of forest! The engineering campus is also spectacular. Another thing that only came to my realization yesterday is that this is a 192 year old university, and many of the original buildings are still standing. I’ll put up the photos when I post this so you can see what I’m talking about.

The only question that seems to be on my mind is “where the hell did 9 months go?” I realize that I’ve left a lot unsaid and undone back home. And that makes me a little frustrated because things might have changed drastically by the time I get back this December in a hope of fulfilling some of these things. I now understand what Kenneth meant by, “Time’s stopped for me. It’s like the world kept moving while I was still stuck in the past.” Granted those aren’t the exact words but the meaning is still the same. I just hope I won’t be too late.

And I’ll keep hoping.


Cheers.

Land of the Free

Right. So this is a bit late.

(A little warning, this post will jump all over the place and will not follow any set chronological order)

The excuse first. The Inn that I’m staying in for now doesn’t have an internet connection for one reason or the other. So even though I typed this in the morning here, I’m only uploading it from a nearby Starbucks. But this problem will be remedied from Monday evening (local time, erm Tuesday morning for you guys) when I move into Days Inn. Ok, excuse done.

So I’m here. Believe it or not, it still hasn’t really sunk in that I’m in America yet, and this is where I’m going to be for the next 4 months at a minimum. It still feels like it’s a momentary break, like I’ll wake up one morning back in Singapore. I’m pretty sure the loneliness will really bite down when my dad leaves 2 weeks from now.

A little add on to the last post. I realized that I didn’t really explain anything in detail or properly when I was sitting at Narita. It’s simple saying that you only realize what you’ve got when it’s gone. Or in this case, when you’re gone. My last few days in Singapore led me to the realization that I have fantastic friends. And the surprise at the airport really affirms that and makes me want to say that again but in caps.

I HAVE FANTASTIC FRIENDS.

Yea, there. That’s done. Let me be honest. I was pretty bummed about the fact that my flight was at some ungodly hour that would make any expectation of people to show up almost inhumane. But the fact that 9 guys stayed over in the airport from 11pm the previous night was just so amazing. The cheesecake, the photo album, the letter, and the gay passport pouch (I love you Gavin :D) was even more astonishing. And everything just added up to making leaving so much harder. But seriously and sincerely, thanks one and all.

Now for my experiences once I landed here. First, I realized that they’re really serious about immigration and security. But thankfully everything went along without a hitch. Met Rajkumar uncle who was going to drive us up to Ann Arbor for Detroit. Here’s a little back story. Rajkumar uncle is my Dad’s college mate from about 25 years back. They haven’t been in touch for almost the same period of time. Imagine my surprise when I find out that he, despite all his other commitments that day (which were quite substantial trust me), came all the way down to pick us up. Awesome eh? Right back to the original story. So we reached the Library Inn at about 6pm and we met the most awesome inn keeper around. The inn is great too. Pictures will be up on FB at about the same time this blog post goes up. Went for a walk with my dad to explore Ann Arbor, ate at a vegetarian restaurant called Seva where the food was great and I was introduced to a very important lesson. AMERICAN SERVING SIZES ARE VASTLY DIFFERENT. Actually, that’s something I realized for many things. Everything here is bigger. The Roads. The concept of size and distance is radically different in comparison to Singapore. Heh. I stop myself from typing “back home” and I type Singapore instead. I shall start using “back home” from now on. Haha. Walked back and fell asleep.

Woke up today (23rd for me, 24th for you guys) got breakfast and went down to Meijers, the local 24hr supermarket. And when Americans say super, they mean super. The ones back in Singapore are just trusty sidekicks in comparison. Walked around, bought some stuff. Haven’t done much after that today though. Rajkumar uncle took us to a BestBuy to get my dad a prepaid phone for him to get some office work done. Will be walking down to the North Campus where my dorm is later.

Right then. That’s it for now. Photos on FB!


Cheers people.

LIVE FROM NARITA

Sup people.

This is me live from Narita! Using some funny internet called BOINGO. haha. Nuff said. I've walked around for a while checking out all the awesome Japanese stuff. Got some shut eye on the flight so I feel pretty fresh right now. :D

Anyhoo, I had an AWESOME surprise this morning from the gang of guys I feel so honoured to call my friends. (yea and in 4 months I'll be spelling it as honOred.) The cake, the photo album, the passport pouch from Gavin, everything was amazing. YES I DID CRY. But only after I went out of sight. :D The photo album in my opinion is going to be used a lot to get over home sickness. haha. And the calls from Firdaus who's in camp and Bernice who was probably medicated were great too.

THANK YOU JONATHAN
THANK YOU EUGENE
THANK YOU KENNETH
THANK YOU BALAJI
THANK YOU GAVIN
THANK YOU ZHONG TING
THANK YOU KAI JIE
THANK YOU MARCUS
THANK YOU VARUN


Cheers!

Looks count for nothing

I happened to switch on my TV yesterday night and caught the last act on America's Got Talent. This total country redneck dude called Kevin Skinner walked onto stage to sing. You could tell that the judges had already made their call on him from his stupid accent and the answers he gave to David's questions.

And then he started to sing.

Rather than type out what happened next, here. Watch it.




Beautiful ain't it?


Cheers.

Cobra Starship!

Songs by Cobra Starship make me want to get up and just jump all around the house. Probably the most fun songs I've heard in a while. And the videos make me laugh silly! WATCH!





CHEERS! (good mood obviously)

Things you learn

Here's a little story I want to share here.

Yesterday, I fell asleep on the bus while reading a library book. I got up just before the bus stopped at my stop, tried to run down the steps in my groggy state, lost a slipper on the way down, had to go up and get it, and rush out of the bus thanks to a kind driver who waited for me. A while later I realized that I had left my book in the bus. So I called my mum to tell her that I'd lost the book. I was hoping she wouldn't give a damn, so I could just go pay the money and not care about this issue ever again.

Boy was I wrong.

In my defense, I had slept the previous night at close to 2am, woken up at 5.10am (needed to do some stuff that early), and hadn't rested a wink the rest of the day. I was frazzled and annoyed. So naturally I got really pissed off when my mum told me to get off my ass, go down to the interchange (which was the next stop) and ask if the book is there. I refused to believe that anyone would have given the book to the lost and found section and I thought I was being sent on this wild goose chase for nothing.

Boy was I wrong.

To cut a long story short, I found my book quite easily. The bus drivers were very nice and pointed out the L&F section upon my query and when I stepped into the L&F room, my book was sitting right on the table.

Now why didn't I think of that in the first place? My mum then told me something important. It may only be a book this time. But what she wanted was a change in attitude. The attitude of not giving in to the easier [albeit more expensive (isn't the easier route always more expensive)] solution is (according to her) very important in life.



Maybe I would have chased down the book if I was in a better state of mind. Or maybe not. I really can't tell for myself. But I'm ashamed I didn't.

Cheerios!