tsewei’s blog

Here’s a photo with bits of snow flurries carried by the wind, flying across the camera.

Found this photo in my camera just now. Must have taken it about two weeks ago, when weather was a real bitch. (read Not Applicable & Not Applicable Part II for my accounts of it).

There’s a conspiracy, whereby no matter which direction you walk in, the wind will ALWAYS be blowing full force in your face. It’s almost like someone up there is having fun with a wind-blower thingy and aiming it at your face all the time. And laugh everytime some bits of snow accidentally enters your mouth or hits your eye.

There are these huge snow mounds all around the campus. It snows almost everyday so they have to shovel the snow. And guess what happens to the snow that gets shovelled to make way for roads? Yup, piled up sooo high, in little mountains, all over the campus.

A friend commented that the snow mound by the carpark is so huge it’s a waste of at least 2 carpark spaces. And the size continues to grow as it snows. And if it collapses, I pity the car parked next to the mound(mount) of snow.

Another day, I saw four students, armed with cute mini plastic shovel, make an igloo-like thing out of one of the mounds. Well, it looks kinda like a mini and snow version of a small cave (think Afghan caves that Osama is supposedly hiding in), all white and nice. More interestingly, they tried to fit themselves in the mini igloo, and took photos.

Unfortunately, I have forgotten to bring my camera along on both occasions. And thanks to the recent warmer weather (warmer means anything above 0 Fahrenheit, but below 0 Celsius), more snow have melted. And for once, the scenery around campus actually includes the colour green! Some grass was peeking through the melted snow!

But trust me, the snow will be back.
Be forewarned of more postings to bitch about the weather.
*evil cackle*

well, not exactly mr postman, but of hot-pink cards, mail room and parcels.

Yeah I was quite excited. Over these 2 days, I found 2 hot-pink cards in my mailbox informing me that I have parcels to pick up at the terrace mail room!

I mean, I’ve never received parcels before, ok!! (official documents by courier service don’t count). *excited*

Finally, today I had some time off my class to trudge through the snow to the terrace mail room during their office hours. And I got my parcels! *yay*

Actually, I kinda already knew what they were, just didn’t expect them to show up so soon. So, still excited.

My darling au yong had ordered to send some photos to me through an online photo-printing service. Yeah, ’cause I was complaining that I didn’t have any photo of us with me here right now (except in my computer). My trusty Samsung E700A is now under the care of my mom, and so are the photos that I took of us. But he found out about the online photo printing service, and sent me some! *happee*

The second parcel’s from Victoria’s Secret. Nice lingerie. ‘nuf said. =)

Incidentally, a card that I mailed over a week ago as a surprise, had just arrived at his doorstep yesterday too.

Perfect. =)

updated:
p/s: thank you!

updated@10pm:
my roomie went to check the mail in the evening just now and there’s another hot-pink card for me. hmm.. wonder what it is..
man, this is fun! =)

” -13 degrees Fahrenheit
Feels like N/A degrees Fahrenheit.”

5.15pm:
Put on my full winter gear, and walked down the hill. Prays the bus doesn’t arrive early.

5.18pm:
bus 11 arrived right on time! Oh hey, it’s Andrew driving the bus again. Got up, paid my $1.50 and sat down to defrost.

5.30pm:
Arrived at the bus-stop at Ithaca Commons. Met with Elizabeth & Xiaorong and proceeded to spout condensed air like 3 teapots brewing away while waiting for Charlene & Maxie to arrive. Theme song of the moment: “I’m a little teapot, short & stout…”

5.46pm:
“Weh, damn cold. Where the heck are they lah?”
“Yeah man, my fingers are frozen.”
“And wrinkled.”

5.55pm:
“Hey, do you think it’ll be warmer if I stand up here? You know, warm air rises and stuff.”
**proceeds to stand atop the bus stop seats**

5.58pm:
“Hey, um, I think I can’t feel my toes anymore. What about you all?”

6.00pm:
“Eh, try calling her phone again and see.”
“Can you call? I can’t feel my fingers enough to hold the phone.”

6.06pm:
“It says -3 Fahrenheit! I don’t believe it. Feels too cold to be just -3.”
“Think it’s spoilt. Or it can’t show anything lower.”

6.10pm:
“We told them Green St. bus stop right? next to Tioga St.? Don’t tell me they are at the wrong place waiting for us too?”
” … … ”

6.12pm:
“Eh, c’mon, lets think warm happy thoughts.”
**hops around at the bus stop trying to bring feeling back to toes**

6.15pm:
“I’m serious. I can’t feel my toes.”
“Shit, me too. This is bad.”
**spouts condensed air profusely**

6.17pm - 7.40pm:
Gave up waiting and calling. Went for major defrosting session at a restaurant.

7.55pm: Back at bus stop:
“Um, I just realised. This isn’t Green St. bus stop. This is Seneca St.”
“shit.”
” … … … … ”

**speechless, and continue to spout more condensed air**

As usual of my new morning routine here in Ithaca, first thing after brushing my teeth would be to check the daily online weather report.

Guess what I got this morning?

-17 degrees Fahrenheit.
Feels like N/A degrees Fahrenheit.

HUH? What exactly do they mean by N/A?? It’s so cold it’s wayyy off the charts?!?

Fcuk. Just great.

Upon changing to a hot-pink turtle-neck for the day, i ventured out, and my face immediately froze. Along with my ears, fingers, nose. Hot cocoa with marshmellows for breakfast did not help at all.

And now it’s this:

-2 degrees Fahrenheit.
Feels like -17 degrees Fahrenheit.

Gee, as if it’s big difference from this morning lah. *rolls eyes*

I’m going out downtown later ’cause it’s Friday night! woohoo!
Just hope I don’t turn into a human popsicle before i reach downtown. =)
*imagines self lumbering around in layers of clothes downtown.*
=S

Yup, as promised, here are some photos that I took several days ago.

Not really looking all that great ’cause I suspect the contrast was not high enough since everything was white and various shades of grey. Grey is just such a mood-killer. Or maybe I just don’t quite know how to best function my camera. =p

Here’s one of Muller Chapel, and the lake next to it on the Ithaca College campus.

And this one, is just some snow-coated leaves. Found them so cute, so I snapped a picture of them.

And here’s another one. A little more snow.

All these were taken several days ago, when it still wasn’t snowing so heavily yet. Today was crazy. Just half an hour ago when I returned from my dinner/supper, it was 9 degrees F, which is negative-I-dunno-how-much celcius. Weather reports are no use now. Everything is just C.O.L.D. to me.

I don’t usually get surprises, so this one was really a good one, and i really appreciate it. =)

here’s what happened:
Upon my arrival in Ithaca, I was basically cut off from the world outside that is Asia ’cause my I can’t use my phone for roaming, and I didn’t have instant Internet connection in my room. (I assumed the hostel service would be as good as NTU halls, but I guessed wrongly.) Besides the phone call i made at La Guardia airport and the local hotel that I stayed over for a night, I could not contact the outside world that is my home n my darling.

Was really going crazy living my day without any form of connectivity to the world beyond Ithaca. I didn’t have time to go to the computer lab, and the pay phone is located a good 15-minutes-walk-in-the-snow away.

So finally on Thursday evening, me and my roomie Xiaorong went to the mall, and got ourselves the cheapest phone we could find. USD 9.99. Decent enough. Came with buttons so large you couldn’t miss the numbers if u pressed them with ur fist. Came back and plugged it in. But then suddenly remembered we have yet to activate our room phone line. So, I was crestfallen again realising that I’m still disconnected from the world.

Resigned to that fact, I proceeded to attempt to connect my laptop to the net with the cables I just bought, when suddenly the phone rang.

I went “huh?” Xiaorong was equally blur. “But I thought it’s not activated?”

I thought, “Maybe it’s a call to tell us about activating the line???” A stupid look on my face. Bewildered.

“Hello?” Xiaorong was the nearest so she picked it up. “Oh, hold on, please.”

HUH? My call?!?! I can’t even remember giving anyone MY number ’cause I can’t even remember the number myself!!

Absolutely dumbfcuked, (can almost see the question marks hovering over my head, bold, italic and underlined), i picked it up.

“Hellooo??” Cautious, and suspicious. (maybe it’s a psycho! haha. just kidding).

And I heard this on the other end of the line: “Hey dear..”

Shocked, surprised, and overjoyed, it was my darling au yong on the phone!!

“How? When? HUH?!? HOW?!?” 5Ws & 1H, I asked them all. I was still blur, and dumbfcuked. But tons happier. I finally got to talk to him after going incommunicado for close to two days..

Since he was on the line, I also managed to get his help to set up my laptop (hehe, remote assistance) and in a few minutes, I was back online! (and the conversation continued over skype.)

But the most important thing was, it was nice hearing a familiar voice again, especially when I thought I was stuck in one corner of the world without phone and the net. Thanks so much dear.

And that was the best surprise I’ve ever had. =)

Never flew so much or so long in my life . 30 hours in total of transits and flying was really too much to bear. Definitely bad for asses and legs and shoulders. But the views during touchdowns were interesting.

I’ve landed in KLIA several times, and there’s usually nothing spectacular to see. Just a bunch of barren land, under development, bleah. But with other airports, it’s different.

With Hong Kong, it was like, lalala you’re still in the air, and you can feel the plane tip a bit preparing for landing. So you lean over to the window to wait for the plane to go through the clouds so you could see the view a bit before it lands. But in 2 seconds to that, *poof* suddenly u see the runway, and *wham* suddenly you’re ON the runway. Fastest touchdown I’ve even seen (not that I’ve seen many in the first place).

With Chicago, it was pretty cool, ’cause when the plane broke through the clouds, it was the first time i saw the view of a city coated in snow that isn’t from a television or a book. I was just staring in awe at all the whiteness.

At La Guardia NY, it was evening when we landed. The plane flew low over much of the city you almost think we’re gonna land on some building, and you could see the evening traffic and the cars, with steam rising from them due to the cold. Then that was the first time I noticed the cars drove on the right side of the road.

By the time I got to Ithaca, it was pitch black, and I was dead tired. Didn’t wake up until the propeller plane hit the tarmac with a thud. Not entertained by plane touching down no more. Just wanted to get back to my sleep.

dear world: I’m back! Been MIA ’cause it took me a while to get Internet connection in my new room and find some time to blog here. But hey, here I am, and HELLOOOOOO!!! =)

Touched down at Ithaca, NY, on 11 Jan night here (meaning, 12 Jan morning in M’sia/S’pore). The 13-hour time difference + 30-hour-butt-aching SG-HKG-Chicago-LaGuardiaNY-Ithaca flight kinda knocked my sleeping time out of whack that by the time I got here, I just slept whenever it’s dark, so jet lag wasn’t too big a problem.

It’s freaking cold here. It’s like -6 C outside right now, and it’ll only get colder once darkness decends. =( And people here tell me it gets colder still. thrills. Hate having to lumber around with 4 layers of clothes on me. Feel like a ‘bao’.

Was really excited about the snow though. Never seen any in my life, and 3 days after arriving, I finally got to see snow flakes fall from the sky and onto my face!!! yay!! Everything was enveloped in white snow, looking very pretty, with a dash of sunshine to top it. Went trigger happy with my camera once I let myself out of my terrace room. (just like a bunch of tourists. tsk tsk.) Lotsa photos to show you all next time!

o0oh! The snow! We realised they are all really 6-pointed! Every one of them! And you can actually see the individual flakes when they fall onto ur coat. Coolness.. (yep, I was pretty excited about it.)

I’ve lots of stuff to blog about (the town here, the Ithaca College campus, the food, oh yes the food, and more about the weather, n my flight) but I’ll do that once I organise my thoughts in my brains.

Meanwhile, let me enjoy my hot cocoa with marshmellows while I hibernate in my room. (too freaking cold to get out. brrrr..)

I can’t believe someone sent me this message over Skype just now. Just how moronic/ignorant people are?!?!?! And it’s some stupid random Skype user I’m not even acquainted with.

send tHis on to at least 10 contacts in 10 Mins as a sign of respect for the tSUnaMi in asia if you break tHis cHain a Boy that died in the accident will stand in your room tonight at Midnight. No send backs. sorry.

I’m sorry, but what the fcuk?

First of all, Choi! bad luck arh.. mau sumpah people kah?

Secondly, are these people like dumb or something? What is the point of such messages? “sign of respect”? Yeah, right. Everytime a disaster/tragedy happens, there’s bound to be lots of such messages going around via sms/msn/icq (and Skype as well). If you want to show respect, please don’t spam users you don’t even know. Or worse still, your friends. Ish. At the very least, use some other kind of messages to “show respect” lah, for goodness sake.

Sigh. Wish such people would just get a life.

will be leaving KL in about 15 hours time.. flying back to Singapore for some last minute packing and clearing my stuff there before i fly off again next week to NY. Really gonna miss KL/PJ.. Will miss the food (most yummylicious, as my tummy will affirm to), miss the shopping (1 Utama is still the best no matter wat!), miss the people (crazy drivers on the road, dvd sellers who pop up next to u at the mamak), miss my family, friends, and my darling. =)

I stopped the rental of my hostel for the next half a year so now my roomie Grace has got a new roomie. Talked to her and she’s not really having fun with the new roomie. It’s some cheena girl who likes chinese-pop. Not very sociable either. Yup, so definitely different. Poor Grace. sigh, I’d really like to keep my room too, but can’t really afford to pay rent just to keep the room without physically staying there. =( Most probably will stay at someone else’s place when I get back to Singapore for the next few days.

It seems pre-departure can get real stressful. I hate packing. But when I get back to Singapore, I’ll have to clear up and pack my stuff again. This is the Nth time that I’m packing this holidays. And I still have got to pack my luggage for the flight later. This is really starting to get on my nerves. bleah.

Yup, I guess this blog entry has just taken a turn, and will now be classified under Rants. yes, I feel bleah, and I’m gonna bleah however many times I want right here until I feel better (or tired, whichever comes first).

Bleah. Bleah. Bleah.

ok. Will not torment you further, dear reader. ;) I’m gonna go pack my stuff and bleah while I’m at it.