I think a dog has better life than me. Then again, a Tibetian Mastiff cost 1.5M USD, so its naturally normal for them to have better life than me. Woof woof

Recently while shopping for groceries, a friend suddenly tell me this: "hey don't buy so much of this and this..cause we have only about 45 more days here in Kingston". Suddenly it dawn upon me that "Hey! I'm midway through my exchange!"

Indeed, this belief has been further affirmed by the midterm exams that i have been going through the past 2 weeks. In fact, i have just finished my last midterm - french oral, an hour ago. Time do fly and while i've been missing Singapore and everyone back home, i don't really wanna go back so soon.


Life's here is pretty fun though.

I really enjoy:
- Talking cock with my housemates
- Mugging every night till 2am(YES. EVERY NIGHT. 2AM AND BEYOND).
- Looking for bus and air tickets to go out on weekends.
- Planning weekend trips.
- Looking at supermarket flyers for discounts every week and doing groceries.
- Cooking lunch and dinner myself everyday.
- Saving money by buying the cheapest fish on offer here, which ironically, is Salmon and cod.
- Speak english in an angmoh accent.
- Talking cock with friends from different country.
- Getting totally stress over french.
- Seeing tons of mapletrees with red falling leaves
- Seeing squirrels stealing food.
- Playing soccer with europeans.
- Picnics, outings and stayovers at friend's house.
- And many others.


and of course, i totally hate...ok i dun really hate alot of things:
- The freaking cold temperature. Below 10 degrees in afternoon, 1 degree in morning..and now is ONLY START OF AUTUMN.
- freaking heavy workload in school, though the things taught here is freaking simple(yes, even french...just that my class people 3/4 alrdy learn french b4)
- Getting broke after every weekend.



Well now that i'm midyear through the exchange, reflecting on my journey so far, i would say its a pretty fruitful one. So far i've managed to go to:
- Los Angeles
- San Diego
- Las Vegas
- Grand Canyon
- Kingston
- Montreal
- Quebec City
- Ottawa
- Niagara Falls


Upcoming:
- Toronto (OMG...DEAD SEA SCROLL EXHIBITION AND CIRQUE DU SOLEIL!)
- New york
- Boston
- Seattle
- Vancouver
- Whistler
- Hong Kong (if i have spare budget)

Its a pity i couldn't go to:
- Churchill
- Halifax
- Winnipeg
- Mexico

I think i'll miss Canada. Oh and Canada's anthem is definitely better than Majulah Singapura.

O Canada!

O Canada!
Our home and native land!
True patriot love in all thy sons command.

With glowing hearts we see thee rise,
The True North strong and free!

From far and wide,
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

God keep our land glorious and free!
O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

O Canada, we stand on guard for thee.

Today is a fine saturday, sunny and cold as usual, and i'm spending this nice day at home because i've sprained my leg yesterday while playing soccer with some canadians and europeans. Not that i have any complains, since i will never play soccer with canadians again...at least not with their lame "soccer" rules that totally infuriates every non-canadian.

Anyway, I've been in Kingston for like 2 weeks? Kingston is a pretty nice, relaxed and scenic place, and is often dubbed the "limestone city" of Canada cause many of the buildings here are actually made out of limestone. In fact, virtually the whole of Queens University is made out of limestone.
Canada is quite a welcome relief from the hectic, action-packed life i had in US, where i woke up early every morning to chiong and went home tired like dog. However, i still do miss US quite a fair bit. US's fastfood definitely thrash Canada's , and the people in US are more friendly and open than the canadians. I also freaaaaaaaaaaaaking miss my dear cousin Cassie and her family.

Haha...but anyway, as i said, Kingston is a pretty nice place. The weather is cooling even in the afternoon..well i guess thats cause summer's ending and autumn's coming. Everywhere u go, u see maple trees, so much so that i think it can fight the prevalence of Pong pong and angsana tree in Singapore liao..haha. The animals here in Kingston are quite different from what u see in Singapore as well. U don't see rats stealing food is dustbins... instead u'll see squirrels everywhere running around. Here u don't see crows stealing food..instead u'll see seagulls everywhere, probably cause Kingston is just beside lake ontario. Here u don't see houseflies near dustbins.. u see bees flying around instead.


The standard of living here in Kingston is, well, i'll say sort of like Singapore..just that the fact that this is just a small town means you wouldn't see all the high-rise buildings or financial district kind-of-thing. A typical meal here cost at least 7 CND (after 13% tax and before tips). The minimum wages here is 9.50CND per hour, so working at Macdonald here actually earns u at least 12 SGD per hr as compared to SG's 3.50 SGD per hour. Not bad right.. we should all consider coming to Canada to sell burgers and fries. Oh talking about fries, Canada has a popular dish call Poutine, which is French fries covered with cheese curds and brown sauce. It taste pretty good..but will be kinda hard to make Singapore because cheese curds are hardly found in places without cheese factory.

My life here was pretty good. I shared a house with 5 other NTU students and a canadian, and i have been cooking for the past few days with satisfactory level of culinary skills...haha. I miss Singapore though, especially the food. Singapore is really an awesome place.. i don't understand how anyone can say they hate staying in Singapore. They are probably noobs who havn't really lived a life outside Singapore. Anyway, i've also been enjoying myself with some NUS and SMU friends, they are equally awesome too!



School's starting soon, in like..2 day's time. Thats good too, cause i'm missing school as well. My plan here is to mug hard and of course, play hard as well! Weekends gonna be spent on going to the different cities, and my plans is to at least cover these places during school term weekends: Ottawa, Toronto, Quebec, Montreal, Niagara falls, New york City, Novo Scotia and Newfoundland. Thats like...8 weekends gone out of 12 weekends during school term! As for end-of-school terms plan, i'm planning to go Vancouver and edmonton, which is on the other side of Canada. Dunno got enough money or not though..lol.

So anyway, the bottom line is: I'm enjoying myself in Canada, but i love Singapore. Kit Chan puts it very aptly:

Whenever I am feeling low
I look around me and I know
There's a place that will stay within me
Wherever I may choose to go
I will always recall the city
Know every street and shore
Sail down the river which brings us life
Winding through my Singapore

Chorus:
This is Home, truly
Where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me
Where that river always flows
This is home, surely
As my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone
For this is where I know it's home

When there are troubles to go through
We'll find a way to start anew
There is comfort in the knowledge
That homes about its people too
So we'll build our dreams together
Just like we've done before
Just like the river which brings us life
There'll always be Singapore

A Bientot!

Its now 8.30am here in Canada, 5.30am in Los Angeles and 8.30pm in Singapore. I am stuck here in Toronto’s Pearson International Airport, waiting to take the 2.30pm bus to Kingston. Just flew here from Los Angeles, and now I’m already missing Los Angeles…plus adapting to the 3 hour difference between LA and Toronto. But well, finally I have some spare time to do some updating.

The past 2 weeks in US(LA,Vegas, San Diego and Grand Canyon) has been more than just fun. It is a period of excitement (from all the thrill rides), exploration (taking Bus and train everywhere) and some fantastic family time (playing with my little cousin every night). To be frank, many aspects of US deviate pretty much from my expectation – LA is not as developed as what most people think; Hollywood is not half as glamorous as what’s depicted on TV; US food is so much more expensive than I expected; US girls are so much prettier than Canadian girls; LA’s public transport is much better than I expected; Grand Canyon is so much majestic than I thought it is; Las Vegas is so ugly in the day and so pretty at night and so on. However, it is exactly these beyond-my-expectation stuffs that really left an indelible impression on me. Of course, this fantastic trip would never be as fantastic if not for my super aunt and uncle, who let me stay in their house, help me do my laundry, prepare daily necessities for me, help me booked a tour to Vegas and Grand canyon, drove me around LA, give me the chance to play with my cousin every night and so on.

I reached LA at about 11pm on 13th Aug, and spent the whole of 14th doing some admin stuff and exploring the public transport system in LA. LA’s transport system is quite cool…they can actually fit every single bus number and the bus routes on one single map. It looks abit messy initially but its actually pretty clear once u know whats going on. Imagine placing the bus numbers and routes of every single bus in Singapore on a single map…. I think it will look like a bowl of noodle soup(with so many lines of routes of different buses)

From 15th to 17th, I went on a tour to visit Las Vegas and Grand Canyon. I went for the tour alone cause I came to LA alone, and it does get quite weird initially, especially when I’m such a shy person who won’t approach people to talk out of nowhere. Thankfully some families/couples in the tour see that I’m alone, so they start talking to me. By the end of the day, I’ve made friends with many of them and even exchanged contacts.

On the first day(15th), we went to Vegas, and reach there in the evening after an arduous journey of nearly 5-6 hours. It was really really reallllllly UGLY, especially in the day. In fact, it probably look worse than NTU. Worse still…Wi-fi in the hotel cost 10USD per hour! I guess they want you to go gamble instead of using internet in room. I rested in the room for about an hour or so before going out on a night tour in the evening in Vegas. Vegas in the night is so freaking pretty…totally different from the day. In my humble opinion, night scene in Vegas is probably second to none in the world. Hotels (cum casinos) in Vegas is so damn cool, they even rear lions, dolphins and sharks inside the hotels. Anyway, I did not play a single game there in Vegas, cause slots machine looks boring, baccarat looks un-winnable, and card games looks pretty mind-boggling. I spent about 10 mins scouring the casino floor though, cause I heard that u can actually find chips on the floor. The tour guide once found a 5000USD chip on the floor!

Anyway,the next day we set off for Grand Canyon. Another arduous journey from the state of Nevada(where Vegas is) to Arizona( where GC is). Again I reach in the evening at about 5pm. We stayed in an idian(not india Indians, but north American native Indians) ranch near GC, and it’s a pretty cool place. There are horses and cowboys everywhere, and our room faces the GC directly. After a little slacking, we set off to the 2 best-viewing points of the GC, the Eagle Point and the Guano Point. The view was fantastic, super. I was in awe of the majesty and beauty of god’s creation. The sight of it is so emotionally invoking. At night, we had some cowboy dance and then a campfire in the night. Super.

18th Aug is my rest day. I spent the whole day resting and doing some sch work, checking email etc. I know that from 19th onwards all the way till 25th, I’m going to be tired like dog…cause I have a feeling that my two frens who’s coming to join me in LA(adeline and aster) are gonna be two scary monster who’s enthusiasm for taking thrill rides and touring is sky high. At night however, I went to the Griffith Observatory with my uncle. It was an astronomy museum, with a big big telescope that can see Jupiter. It was up on a hill, and the breeze there is both chilling and soothing. The building is really pretty and it was a good night out.

From 19th onwards, my life is a simple routine. Wake up freaking early, go out chiong the whole day till evening, then join my uncle’s car go home. Reach home, play with Cassie till 11 plus, then do some facebook picture uploading and check emails. No time for blogs though…which explains why its left till now..haha. Every morning I woke up real early to go msn for 5-10 mins catch up with frens abit, then 730am take my uncle’s car to his hospital, which is near a Train station, and from there, we start our assault of LA, going to as far as Santa Clarita on our own(to go 6 flags magic mountain).

On 19th, we went to Santa Monica beach and from there, we walk around 3rd St Promenade, which is pretty interesting. Around there is a farmer’s market, so we went store by store trying peaches, plums and pluots. Yes I’m nv type wrongly..pluot – hybrid of plum and apricot. Taste like plum though. Anyway, then we continue to walk a freaking long distance along the beach to Venice beach. Venice beach is really nice…imagine bugis st beside a beach with all sort of weird weird pushcarts and stores. This is a really tiring day with all the walking and photo taking..under the hot sun. It absolutely sets the tone for the rest of the days.

On 20th, we went to Universal Studio, as usual early in the morning. We come here with a purpose – to clear every single rides and shows in Universal. By 6pm, we did it! Now that’s really quite some feat, and we even eat lunch while queuing and plan strategically which to go first. Universal studio is cool…but it gets a bit boring by mid day. I guess its because we chiong all the fun rides in the morning, and what’s left in the afternoon are just the less fun rides and shows. Well we had great fun nevertheless, going home full of satisfactions.

21st, we went 6 Flags Magic Mountain. Its where the fastest, tallest and scariest rides in the world are, and indeed it is. We spent 2 hours before we reach 6 flags….and when I raise my head and saw the roller coasters track, I suggested to ade and aster that maybe we should go home check emails and sleep…to no avail. Well I’m glad they insisted, cause it was reaaaaaaaaaal fun. Rides are that scary actually… ok it IS scary..but it is really fun too. We took rides that goes frontwards, backwards, upwards, downwards, standing, sitting, dangling, dry, wet. One disappointment, however, is the queue. I queued 1.5 hours for each of my first two rides. Should have bought a priority queue ticket instead…next time perhaps!

22nd was a day full of excitement. Why? Cause we are going Disney! It’s a tad bit sad though…Disney don’t have my favourite scrooge duck. But well they have Donald duck, so that’s not too bad. Anyway, we went to Disneyland and California adventure(which are side by side) together with my aunt and Cassie(my cousin). It was really fun sitting the rides with her and see her marvel at every single thing…even though she’s been to Disney at least 30 times. They stay in LA, and they have annual pass, so they can easily go Disney whenever they like…talk about fortunate kids..haha. it was freaking hot as usual..well that’s California, the “Golden State”. It seldom rains here, and everywhere are parchy dry plants scorched by the fearsome sun. My favourite was the Aladdin Show…really cool musical, and of course the once-a-day fireworks at night was fabulous as well. The firework display is so much longer and nicer than S’pore’s national day fireworks…and with the fabled Disney castle as the backdrop, the whole firework show is simply…magical.

23rd is a really slack day. We joined a tour to San Diego Seaworld in the morning. San Diego is somewhere between Los Angeles and Mexico, and is about 3 hours drive away from Los Angeles. Due to its proximity to Mexico, it has a very large Mexican population and very strong Mexican flavor. When we reach San Diego, we went on a 1 hr Bay Cruise to see San Diego’s bay scenery. It was…boring. Never ever take a bay cruise. After that, we finally go San Diego Seaworld! It was real cool…other than the usual polar bears and penguins, we get to see Manatees, Walrus, Beluga whale, Pilot Whale and Shamu the killer whale! It’s the first time I get to see a live whale and whales are so cool…super duper cute. Oh, I get to touch big stingrays too…they feel just like the BBQ stingray I eat in Singapore…well they are the same species afterall I guess.

24th is technically our last day, as adeline and me will be flying to Canada on 25th while aster will be flying back to San Francisco. She studies in UC Berkeley…smartie. We woke up early as usual, and went on to assault Hollywood. Hollywood is frankly vastly overrated. Its just a stretch of road, with the main attractions cluster together along a portion of the road, sort of like orchard road. To be frank, Orchard road looks so much nicer than Hollywood. Anyway, I dropped my new camera on the floor here! It was awfully scratched…but its still working. I’m freaking sad… but well at least its still working. Anyway, we took a 2 hr tour to visit celebrities’ houses on Beverly hill and Bel-Air. It was boring…the houses are all hidden behind tall bushes and walls. Michael Jackson’s house was cool though..with a lot of soft toys outside his house that people gave to him..dos Michael Jackson still play soft toys? So anyway, we also went to Rodeo Drive, the supposed high class shopping area. Orchard road looks nicer. We got bored of Hollywood by afternoon, so we looked at the map and proceed to farmer’s market and “the grove”, another shopping area. This place is pretty nice…nice chill out and casual shopping area, with lots of food stores. In the evening, we went to the famous Disney Concert hall(no its not in Disney)…just another building that is overhyped by people.

25th is the last day of my LA tour… we bought a two-day park hopper ticket, so we get to go Disney for 2 days. We went on 23rd, so today we went again, to finish up some rides that we have not taken. Frankly speaking, I’m already pretty bored of Disney so in this second trip, I’m just following them walk around play some rides, take some photos. At about 4pm, we set off for the airport, my aunt and uncle driving us there. At the check-in counter, something FREAKING PISSS ME OFF HAPPEN. AIR CANADA DON’T LET ME CHECK IN MY FISHING ROD ALONG WITH MY BAG! URghhhhhh…they say that if I want to check in the fishing rod, I have to check it in separately..and it cost 100CND. Make me damnnnnnnn sad. Actually, when I go LA from Singapore, Cathay by right should charge me for checking in the fishing rod, but they never, that’s why I can bring it over to US. Haix..its damn sad.. in the end I left the rod at my aunt’s house in LA..i don’t even know if I can bring it back to Singapore when I’m going back in January.

So anyway, Air Canada is actually quite spacious and comfy, and I slept all the way from 10.30pm(US time) when the plane fly, all the way to 6am(Canadian time), and then here I am waiting for the 2.30pm Coach Canada bus to bring me to Kingston.

I’m so exhausted…and so sad…I love LA. Alright its time to end the holiday mood and prepare for the start of the new school semester!

Quite some time ago, i made a comment "XXXX-Oriented" and my conversation partner was rather taken aback. In response,she said(with a little "o_0" face), "Orientated".
That baffles me as i remember rather clearly reading it somewhere as "oriented".Oh well since she usually thrash me almost hands down in English, i simply have to accept it at that point in time.

However, now i discover i'm actually correct! Ok she's not wrong either, but frankly i think "oriented" sounds better than "Orientated". What do u think?


From http://www.worldwidewords.org/qa/qa-ori1.htm:

[Q]
I am uneasy about the word orientated as in business-orientated. I feel the word should be oriented. Am I right, wrong, pedantic, or what?

[A]
We have a minor oddity here, in that both orient and orientate come from the same French verb, orienter, but were introduced at different times, the shorter one in the eighteenth century and the longer in the middle of the nineteenth. There’s been a quiet war going on between the two of them ever since. I tend to use oriented and orientated pretty indiscriminately myself, choosing the shorter one when it seems to fit the flow of the sentence. Robert Burchfield, in the Third Edition of Fowler’s Modern English Usage, says “one can have no fundamental quarrel with anyone who decides to use the longer of the two words”. But all this is a British view, since here orientated is common; in the US it is less so and considered much less a part of the standard language. So, as always, it’s as much a case of who you are writing for and where you are doing so.

Quite simply, it means "Orientated" is preferred in British use while "Oriented" is more prevalent in US.

So anyway, moving on, for the past few days i've been following the indonesian election. I don't usually talk about politics, not to most people anyway, cause politics is never as straightforward as what news made it out to be and its really hard to paint a picture on politics in any short discussion. There are incredibly numerous factors that affects different parties and with that, there is seldom a clear "who's right who's wrong" in each and every political issue.

However this time round i was so impressed with how Indonesia have conducted the elections and the path that they are heading towards, i feel it is fitting of me to tear away the stereotype i used to have of them and give them credits where its due.

We all know how Indonesia have been grappling with domestic and external affairs for the past decades or so. From the demise of Suharto's reign to the deadly religious and ethnic conflict at the turn of the millenium, from the official independence of East Timor to the 2004 Asian Tsunami. Corruptions, religious and ethical issues, natural disasters,terrorist and poverty are just some of the stumbling blocks to Indonesia's economical,political and social development.

I have to admit, all along i've been viewing Indonesia through a stethoscope - i only hear, but not see nor experience it and its people. Of course, the fact that one of my father's mistress use to be an indonesian makes things worse. As a result, i have very much painted an image of Indonesia with a stereotypical mind.

However, after recent interaction with my indonesian tuitee and a very good indonesian friend i made in NTU, i come to discover that maybe, maybe i should really mop up this stereotype i have in my mind about Indonesia.

Anyway, as i said, the recent development and conduct of indonesia have really impressed me. I was pretty impressed at how the election proceeded with a minimum of violence and vote-rigging accusations(though Megawati, like all losers, complained of vote irregularities). I guess alot of it actually boils down to Yudhoyono, affectionately known as SBY. I don't know much about him, to be frank, except that his vision for the future of Indonesia is very much focused on economical prosperity and anti-coruption. I do, however, see the change in Indonesia since his election in 2004 and i believe it is clear for all to see.

Ranking 126th in the most recent Transparency International index as opposed to 143 the year before, Indonesia's anti-corruption effort has seen results and the jump in ranking is a huge improvement. It is an undeniable evident of the direction that Indonesia is moving towards - a nation with less corruption. Even my tuitee supports Yudhoyono. If you can make a 13 year old boy supports a politician (given the fact that 13 yrs old boy don't really care about politics), then you must be pretty good.

Economically, Indonesia has also been rather stable, emerging from the global financial crisis relatively unscathed. In fact, the country recorded 4.4% growth in the first quarter of this year as opposed to US's 6.1% contraction in the same period. Investors, of course, are pretty optimistic about the future prospect of Indonesia as well. Indonesian unit trust have been on the rise for the past couple of months and while it might be too early to say anything much, the signs are pretty good.

Ok time to knock off! Can you believe it, i have spent the past 3 hours blogging, you can see how free i actually am.

Parting is such sweet sorrow, especially when it comes to weekend!

Hi its been eons since my last post, and quite fittingly so. Well life's been pretty hectic, and free time has been sparse at best. Since Dec 08, i've been through multitude of events, one's noteworthy though, and that is my passing of driving after numerous attempts. Its not that uncommon really,. I know someone's been there done that - just as King Claudius said to gertrude, "When sorrows come, they come not single spies, but in battalions. " No matter, i'm glad and contented i passed. You know, content is my crown, a crown that seldom kings enjoy.

Hmm, recently i've watched a movie, a supposed comedy. Well its not exactly "a", but rather half of it - i deleted it after watching 40 mins of it. Sometimes, its a marvel how humour can appeal so differently to different people. I watched this movie because it was rated by someone as the "best comedy ever". Perhaps i am not well-equipped enough, or i am simply a dimwit, to be able to appreciate a movie of this complexity and depth.

Heres an excerpt from "Monty python and the holy grail"


Should this movie appeal to you, please, pray for me.