Wednesday, April 25, 2007

spring brings renewed hope.

spring is here. one week after the tragedy the things are still fresh in my head. i can only take comfort in God. who provides great comfort and joy in the midst of trials and suffering. there's always a reason for everything. sometimes we may not understand. but He has a plan.

i attended the vigil for the victims of the massacre organized by UW's students' union. it was solemn, and it stressed the importance of unity. to prevent ethnic discrimination.

after the short vigil, the clock bell chimed 33 times in honor of the victims, including the shooter, as we bowed our heads in silence. i closed my eyes and prayed, the many times i've prayed since the tragedy. and i stared at that candle in front of me as darkness started to fall. i remember Matthew 5.


after the vigil a crowd of people gathered in a circle to pray and i decided to join in. as i heard each prayer, praying for almost everything i could think of. no ethnic discrimination. the shooter's parents. the victims. the families. the community. the university. the administration. the student leaders. the korean community. love. comfort. faith. hope. i was filled with peace.

i'm glad for spring. everything around me looks beautiful. i'm reminded of God's grace and His amazing creativity everyday. even when things may be bad, readings and midterms, travel headaches and all, i can find comfort and most importantly, joy in the Lord.

oh yes. and a new found love for reading God's word. =) i'll miss seattle terribly. and the life i have here. but i'm also looking forward to be back. back with family, sam, friends, bethany, hugo my darling dog and the food.

be gone in 2 days to portland for sight-seeing and a damien rice concert. =) =) the rufus wainwright concert was sooo good. soooo good. he was charming and has a magnetic personality. his eccentric gay sense of style shines so brightly. haha. his dress theme for himself and his 7-man band is stripes and brooches. he had like 4 shiny diamondy bling brooches on his striped jacket, striped shirt and striped pants. haha. so funny. i'm not the elast bit turned off by his clothes (although i think i'd be if i saw a guy wear that on the street). he sang songs from his new album, to be released in mid-may. it's good!! although i still prefer his quiet songs, just a guitar or a piano. he's a great pianist!! ohmygoodness he's good. and he also sang some old songs, like the Art Teacher and One Man Guy. the crowd was good, really excited and psyched to see him. and he bantered effortlessly with the audience. i took a video and 2 photos. because silly me forgot the camera. argh. will upload soon.

hehhh. damien damien concert yayyy.

Labels: damien rice, life in seattle, rufus wainwright, virginia tech

This girl posted at 3:44 PM

Tuesday, April 17, 2007

when death hits a little too close for comfort.

this morning in class my political science prof wonders sadly, why do such things happen in america so often.

Gunman kills 32 in Virginia Tech rampage

By SUE LINDSEY
Associated Press Writer

BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) -- A gunman massacred 32 people at Virginia Tech in the deadliest shooting rampage in modern U.S. history Monday, cutting down his victims in two attacks two hours apart before the university could grasp what was happening and warn students.

The bloodbath ended with the gunman committing suicide, bringing the death toll to 33 and stamping the campus in the picturesque Blue Ridge Mountains with unspeakable tragedy, perhaps forever.

The rest of the article is found here ( http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/V/VIRGINIA_TECH_SHOOTING?SITE=WVEC&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT ) and everywhere else. i clicked on every link there was on my "news" bookmarks on safari, and everywhere i went (except channelnewsasia.com), the headline just screams out the unimaginable.

i sit at my desk on the other side of the coast and i don't really know what to think. i thought about the victims. professors, students, my age, or even younger. their lives ended on a normal day of class with no warning. i thought about the families. they never got to say goodbye. i thought about the friends. i thought about the gunman. an asian male. calmly moving from room and room. shooting and reloading. shooting and reloading. finally shooting himself.

i couldn't really think anymore so i drowned myself in work. assignment for philosophy of science class. but here i am again, wordlessly moving from page to page, reading reports streaming in.

echoing my professor, why why why? sometimes i really want to ask God (and get an answer straightaway) why He allows such things to happen.

just barely 2 weeks ago, a shooting also took place way too close to home. details here ( http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003648679_uwshooting03m.html ). one UW staff member was shot 5 times by her ex-boyfriend/stalker, before the guy turned the gun onto himself and shot himself. on UW campus. it was horrifying and very very sad. she did everything she could to protect herself from the psycho, but he still found her. i was shell-shocked because it was really just around the corner (ok about 8 blocks away from where i live), but i took comfort in the Lord and the fact that it was a personal thing. it wasn't a random act of psycho-ness. it wasn't a shooting rampage.

this virginia thing, major shooting rampage. it was random. he just shot everyone in his sight. mercilessly.

okok stop. i am not as depressed as i sound. it's good that i had a good 40 min chat with sam. it's good i'm drowning myself in studying for my political science quiz on wednesday. ok. chat with sam really helped. i don't think he knows what big difference he does to my mood.

well, life goes on.

Labels: life in seattle, news, sam

This girl posted at 3:47 PM

Thursday, April 12, 2007

He gave His life for us.

As little children we would dream of Christmas morn
Of all the gifts and toys we knew we’d find
But we never realized a baby born one blessed night
Gave us the greatest gift of our lives

*We were the reason that He gave His life
We were the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give
To show us the reason to live

As the years went by we learned more about gifts
The giving of ourselves and what that means
On a dark and cloudy day a man hung crying in the rain
All because of love
All because of love

I finally found the reason for living
It’s in giving every part of my heart to Him (every part to Him)
And all that I do every word that I say (you know I’ll be saying)
I’ll be giving my all just for Him, for Him (every thing for Him)

We are the reason that He gave His life
We are the reason that He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave all He could give (all that he could give all)
To show us the reason to live

#He is the reason to live
don’t you know do you know the reason
that He came, oh He came to save us
when he gave His life for us
He suffered and died
To a world that was lost He gave everything (everything that He had He gave)
To show us the reason to live

Don’t know how I could thank Jesus all that he had all..

-Avalon's We Are The Reason

easter came and went. i'm glad i went for maundy thursday, good friday and easter sunday services. the one that really spoke to my heart was the easter sunday one. and i was glad danny went with me. the pastor gave a good message about the meaning of Jesus's death on the Cross and His resurrection. what effect it had on His disciples, and what effect it had on us. it was a fresh new way of looking my risen God, and very insightful. i'm also glad i got to talk to t. chen kee and pastor mitch on msn, as well as looking at easter concert and easter lunch pictures on blogs. =)

now i'm looking forward to listening to pastor charlie's maundy thursday and easter messages on mp3. i'm looking at my faith and salvation in a greater light now. i feel blessed.

anyways school is overloading me with readings and more readings. all thanks to my electives. but i shall be strong in God's grace! looking forward to shopping at lynnwood, a neighbouring city outside seattle, rufus wainwright concert, damien rice concert and travelling around portland, my 2 sisters' arrival here in seattle (yayyy!!), kayaking and whale-watching at san juan islands and planning my summer holidays to los angeles, las vegas, grand canyon, hoover dam, yosemite national park, san francisco, and the caribbean. hope my budget works out. haaaa.

oh yes. there's always those midterms and quizzes and readings to dampen my mood. but i have joy in the Lord! =)

Labels: damien rice, easter, life in seattle, thoughts

This girl posted at 7:40 AM

Saturday, March 10, 2007

hugging a box.

carlene!! i received your package this morning!! haha the delivery man woke us up and my roomie went to collect to open the door at 8am for the man. i didn't think much of it and went back to sleep. until i woke up, brushed teeth and washed face, and as i pass by the tv on the way to my table i saw it!!! ahhhhh. what a nice way to start my day. =) esp when it's the last day of winter quarter!

i immediately sat down and grabbed by scissors and opened it. super a lot of masking tape lah. heh. i saw hello pandas! and marinating sauces and tom yam paste!! ahhh i'm so super excited. i read 1/2 of the postcards before realising i'm gonna be late for class. as usual. reluctantly i put everything back and rushed to change and met my neighbours to walk to school.

then i came home and explored every inch of the box and read every card twice. haha. tears almost welled up in my eyes. i saw my beloved meiji sweets and maggi porridge and more hello pandas and more tom yam paste! ahhh the best laid at the bottom. strawberry fran. i don't even need to look, i couldn't recognise the box. =) =)

reading the cards made me miss my friends in SBS even more. because in UW i'm most of the time on my own in classes. no one to take sleeping pictures of during lectures, or frantically refer to lab reports before a deadline, no lunch khakis and meiji factory outings and yucky coffee from the vending machine and trips to cafe by the quad convenience store and chatting with the aunties about snowskin mooncakes. =) i look forward to being back in school with that bunch of friends. as in really really looking forward. thanks carlene, ed, champ, andrea, RC(where's your card?!?! i also noticed don't have lanpei, huimin also!), lanpei, huimin, yoke peng, stephy, jingyin, samuel, angie and jac! love you guys loads.

speaking of long distance packages. i've been meaning to send back stuff to you carlene, 'cos your birthday presents are sitting in my room! i bought them in vancouver and when i came back, i just realised, that i put all my gifts away 'cos of the limited space in my tiny room. okok. i better get to doing that when i come back from spring break.

anyway winter quarter ended today. i've been thinking about this quarter yesterday night, and as i prayed to the Lord i realised there's just so many things to thank God for. true, that many unpleasant things have happened and things aren't always going the way it's supposed to go or the way you want them to go. but in the midst of those things, i'm learning to look for things to be thankful for so i don't become some mean, snappy, grumpy, grouchy, annoying girl.

take for example 2 days ago. i was happily on my way to school. thinking about the afternoon of working on my assignment with shian chi at the hub (like NTU's SAC, but much nicer). and without warning, on a slightly uneven road surface, i twisted my ankle and fell. it didn't help that i was carrying my bag, a laptop bag and hugging 2 books. i fell in the middle of the road and had a hard time getting up. and my ankle was hurting like ****. i couldn't even walk or see straight. i sort of limped to the side and brushed off the muddy wet stains on my coat and jeans. it was drizzling you see. and i guess i had every reason to be grumpy that day. at first i was SO unhappy. my ankle hurt and i couldn't walk fast or properly. my coat and jeans were dirty. my hands were dirty and i was late for class. and i had so many things to carry.

i was resenting and blaming everything, until i thought: it's a good thing i didn't wear a skirt today, 'cos i initially wanted to as the weather was turning warmer and i was sick of jeans. but i woke up to a rainy day so decided to stick to jeans and boots. if i had worn a skirt, that would be really bad. cuts, bruises and stains on my very very nice skirt from mango. and it's also a good thing i wasn't eating breakfast. if not it'll be wasted and i would have fallen more badly. and i started to look at things in perspective and actually thanked God for this. besides that, my friends were really really nice and offered to carry my bags, walk with me to school and back, offering advice of sprained ankles and remedies. and i've learnt to appreciate my friends even more.

i think God is truly wonderful for His exceedingly abundant grace. all through this quarter. as i read 1 timothy this week i'm again so deeply encouraged by Paul.


we all know that Paul was a bad man before he came to know the Lord. he was so bad he even persecuted Christians, until the Lord spoke to him. after that he became a faithful servant of God and he writes about that exceedingly abundant grace that the Lord showed him and how He came to this world to save all the sinners.

i see that grace everyday. in everything. even that strawberry-filled hello panda biscuit.

Labels: grace, life in seattle, thoughts, UW

This girl posted at 6:00 AM

Thursday, February 15, 2007

love never fails.

happy valentine's day everyone!

honestly, happy the-
most-commercialized-where-a-bunch-of-roses-go-for-USD22 day!

ok i'm so cynical. i'd rather express love on a more frequent basis rather than just once a year. y'all know what i mean?

but all things being said, i still miss spending the day with sam. this is the 2nd time we're spending it apart. last year he was in sydney. this year i'm in seattle. the only time we were together on the same piece of land mass is wayyy back in 2005.

my favorite description of love comes not from poems or sonnets or prose or movies.


anyway school's been just trudging along, dragging me at its feet. i miraculously passed my lab exam, which was something to thank God for. i passed! not with flying colors. barely. but still happy. now just gotta study harder for the midterm coming up. argh.

movie pre-valentine's date night with the girls of patricia place (that's the name of my apartments). 7 girls ordered subway/mexican wraps and went to watch because i said so and it was not too bad! i love romantic comedies/chick flicks. love diane keaton and lauren graham and mandy moore. haha the movie was quite funny and i had a really good laugh. =) seeing diane keaton being the mother to 3 daughters make me miss my sisters and my family EVEN MORE. sigh. i miss my sisters actually. i never thought i would. the hours of talking rubbish and talking good food and going shopping. i'm very glad that i've grown closer to them, because i was never close to them due to our huge age difference. and God really works in wonderful ways to bind us together. *smiles*

the weekend that just went by was a pre-CNY gathering of the patricia place and 5 NBS students from the other apartments, campus heights. that saturday started out with a huge breakfast of pancakes, waffles, scrambled eggs, french toast, hot cocoa with coffee. satisfaction followed, leading to my friend and i carrying 2 big backpacks and heading to chinatown to buy groceries for our steamboat dinner while the rest of them went shopping! hhmmpphhh. i wanna go shopping toooo! but we had fun grocery shopping. i love grocery shopping. esp in a chinese supermarket. on the way back we were loaded with very very heavy backpacks and 2 big bags that we carried in our hands. and as we began our tiring walk to the busstop, we started seeing CNY songs. hurhur. it was so funny. i think people thought we were mad.

we got home, sorted the groceries, rested abit, and proceeded to cook at 4pm. the other girls were supposed to be back to help with the prep. but those shopaholics didn't come home till like 5pm. (and one of them actually had the nerve to proclaim that she was the main cook! ok i'm just ranting but i can't stand it when other people take credit for what they never did.) so we washed everything and cut everything and prepared the 2 types of soup base for our steamboat. we had a LOT of food. and it was goooodddd. love how my 2 soups turned out. decided that red dates and shrimps just wouldn't be right. and that dried scallops should go with shrimps while red dates go with chicken broth. perfect.

(ps. ohmygoodness the cute seth-cohen lookalike guy from my graduate class is here in the library! hee. he's cute.)

the excess food was cleared by many many rounds of zhong1 ji2 mi4 ma3. and many many laughs. we washed everything and proceeded to snack on mandarin oranges and egg rolls. took crazy pictures using the multi-burst function and it was hilarious. reminds me of the neoprint days.

after saying bye to the campus heights people, after bathing and checking emails, it was girls night in and another round of gossips and rubbish games and getting-to-know-each-other and truth/dare games. and yes snacks. we finally dragged our tired feet back at 4am.

therein ends another weekend of fun.

looking forward to this weekend! its presidents' day holiday and i'm going outlet-shopping on friday and vancouver for the long weekend. yayyyyy.

but first. midterms. argh.

Labels: life in seattle, love, sam, UW

This girl posted at 3:37 AM

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

today.

is a good and bad day.

human anatomy lab exam was a disaster. got all the muscle names and their locations and actions mixed up like rojak. throw in the names of nerves, anatomy of eye and ear, and all you get is a mess of latin names.

gastrocnemius semitendinosis semimembranosis extensor digitorium longus extensor hallusius longus soleus peroneous longus peroneous brevis gluteus maximus gluteus medius gluteus minimus iliopsoas psoas latissimus dorsi deltoid rectus femoris tibialis anterior vastus lateralis vastus medialis vastus intermedius biceps femoris external obliques internal obliques transversus abdominus rectus abdominus serratus anterior subscapularis infraspinatus supraspinatus trapezius sternocleidomastoid

i'm positive i missed out some muscle names. (fyi i typed all that from memory!) but these are just the muscle names. not even the nerves and eye and ear and the actions and all.

but i'm glad that i went up to the cadaver lab yesterday for a last minute revision. not only did i refreshed my memory a little, i made several new friends who aren't in my lab session. and this mexican guy is just so funny and he talks a LOT of rubbish. haha.

came home to watch an episode of OC to reward myself.

followed by good things. skype session with parents. a phone call from sam for me to unload all my midterm troubles.

dinner was a boring affair comprising the simple rice, sardines, egg with ham. followed by a big bowl of grapes. msn session with an old friend. american idol auditions at texas that made me laugh so hard. a 5 min walk in the cold in slippers (laziness) to the bubble tea-cum-board games cafe to play monopoly and have yummy avocado greentea bubble tea. great time laughing and gossiping. and i won the game! =)

mid terms are driving me nuts. so far had 3 already. plus a mountain of assignments, all graded. one is due the day after tmr. one more midterm next week. one final exam take-home paper still untouched, due in 2 weeks.

glad for snowboarding trip at snoqualmie. it's fun admist all the falling. 2 huge blueblacks on my knees and muscle ache all over. it's all worth it! gerri and dan were nice enough to bring us there for a 2nd time.

looking forward to vancouver. more snowboarding. spring break. new york city, niagara falls, washington dc. spring. cherry blossoms. whale watching. trips to the national parks. tulip fields. alaska? factory outlets. tax-free shopping at portland. summer. LA, LV, grand canyon, san fransico.

missing the CNY festivities. the food. the company. the visiting. sam. friends. family. ang paos. will try to make it up by throwing a party at home. complete with chinese food and lots of talking.

miss you guys. save me some pineapple tarts and ang paos. =)

Labels: life in seattle, thoughts, UW

This girl posted at 3:51 PM

Saturday, January 13, 2007

oh the weather outside is frightful.

here i am, freezing my bottoms off in the health sciences library, reading the anatomy textbook and trying to remember where the femur is and looking at x-rays of all kinds of bones. seems like the heater is not working. even by ibook doesn't feel warm. according to yahoo! the temperature outside now is -1 degrees. temperatures have been dropping like crazy as we approach deep winter in jan. even with the sun out, the air is freezing. don't even get me started on the wind chills, which drops the temperature by 3-4 degrees when it blows in your face.

despite that, i still like walking out in the open! all you need to do is to get your mind off the cold. wear tons of layers. long johns. bask in the sun. walk faster to get your heart pumping. enjoy the sights. with so many things around me to see where got time to worry about the cold? it's a good strategy because i used to be really miserable in cold weathers. now i'm not! and not to mention the feelings of awe and amazement and thankfulness when i'm surrounded by beautiful sights. this world that my God has created for us. He created such beautiful things just for us, because He loves us. how wonderful is that.

so it snowed 2 days ago. the weather forecasts were all really accurate. and it happened in the funniest manner. my friend suhui and i were grocery-shopping at U-village in the afternoon after classes, when we were almost gonna check out and we peered out and saw white stuff falling from the sky. white stuff that's not rain. the outside became a blur of white things. and we realised it was snow! we grabbed our bags, left our shopping cart in the supermarket and went out to stand in the snow. hahaha. sua ku singaporeans.

it was the most beautiful sight. the snow was light and fluffy. it was all over. the snow melted the moment to touched the ground. so in that sense it was beautiful just for a moment, fleeting. in the air, the snow danced in the wind. as the wind came, it seems as though the wind was drawing a piece of art on the snow canvas. i stood and was really excited and mesmerized at the same time. we took many pictures with the snow. haha. and finally went back to pay for our groceries. and i bought a jacob's creek bottle of red wine for USD5.99. how cheap is that. =) but our total bill was USD74.99. haha. that's more than 100 sing. and we didn't even buy a LOT.

as we reached home 1 hour later, we dumped our groceries in our rooms and went out to take MORE pictures. yes we were that excited. by this time the snow had stopped falling but my blockmates were gathering snow off the roof of cars, making snowballs and having a snowball fight, right in front of our apartments. i got a super duper painful hit from my friend 'cos the ball didn't break as it hit my arm. hehhh but quite fun. the snow continued to fall intermittently throughout the night, but we were lucky (and unlucky too) that it probably only snowed 1-2 inches here. my sister's friend who lives in the south had 6 inches of snow and they couldn't get to work the next morning.

speaking of the morning after. it was just as beautiful! i stepped out to white snow on top of almost everything. trees, cars, houses, shrubs, soil. everything was just wrapped in a blanket of white snow and the sight was amazingly beautiful. the sun was out but the snow didn't melt due to the crazy subzero temperature. so it was just a sight i wished i could stand still for a minute to take it in. but as usual, i was running late for class. snapped pictures along the way so check back on my pictureblog soon.

anyway i need more cooking ideas! carlene! can you send me some of your foolproof recipes? including the one you cooked for our christmas get-together.

edward! you know the microbe soft toys you got us for christmas? they are sold at my school's bookstore! which is school of medicine lah. but they are SO many of them!! i shall upload the pictures soon.

ohyes. another exciting thing. one of my classes is human anatomy and physiology. and for the first lab, we got to look at cadavers. as in dead bodies that were dissected for the purpose of learning. at first i was so afraid that i was gonna freak out and puke out whatever things that i do not have in my stomach. but thankfully i didn't! mainly because it looked so model-like. it was dissected and prepared and processed till they resemble plastics. touch-wise, it felt soft but i didn't touch much. we looked at the muscles primarily. but i got to peer into the body cavity and see all the organs. heart, liver, lungs, kidneys, stomach. the genitals, head, feet and hands were covered for minimal privacy and taking into account the interest of other students. one of the cadavers which i worked with was a woman. she was quite small sized and elderly. the other cadaver i worked with was a man. very big chest cavity. very developed muscles. today we went to look at bones! this time it was the bones of an elderly woman. all the tibia and femur etc etc.

i realised my medical knowledge is really a lot for a non-medical student. haha. all thanks to CSI and House and grey's anatomy. although i watched ER before, but that was a long time ago.

well well, i'm going to post more pictures up soon. of the NBA game and the snow. =) assignments are looming. and more subject registration nonsense. sssiigghh.

starting to miss home. ok actually i missed a lot of home and singapore already. i've crossed the mark and set a new record of the longest time away from home. the longest being 11 days when i went to tokyo with my sis. as i predicted, this trip is really God's very own creative test for me to grow and mature and to be independent. drawing closer to God and reading His word and listening to pastor's messages online really really helps with everything. from the settling down to the culture shock (not much. thanks to all the american tv and magazines) to the people relationships to the everyday living bits like chores and meals. also a test of not taking anything that i had at home for granted. because many of us tend to do that and do not realise it before it's too late. so i'm glad i had this chance to not become like that.

ok i'm not making sense. my proteins assignment is calling me. but the long weekend is here. martin luther king day. it's supposedly a day of service. heh. makes me think of wsc. =) i think all my professors are all really good teachers. even the fred hutchinson guy who is quite a prominent scientist and researcher with many award-winning papers published. he's really good but i'm scared that he'll ask me some difficult question then i cannot answer.

ok. upload photos. eat fruits. do assignment. read Bible. sleep.

good plan.

Labels: life in seattle, snow, UW

This girl posted at 5:04 AM

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

never changing.

2nd week of school starts. and there are more changes to my subjects. as usual.

after days of fighting for my subjects with the gip coordinator, and even after emails to my vice-dean, finally they allow me to take the modules to match my BS modules. the graduate ones. the ones where everyone is older than I am and more experienced than I am and they all have a bachelor's degree already.

it's really quite intimidating at times. but the content so far has been understandable. not very different from days back at NTU at CR1 listening to my lecturers talking about some obscure topic.

so this quarter i'm matching 2 core modules - protein folding/NMR and drug discovery with the 2 graduate modules. and the other 2 i'm gonna clear as electives. one is behavioral genetics, which the first lecture has proven to be quite interesting. and the last one is human anatomy and physiology. which has been really boring because it's a whole repeat-in-slow-motion of A-level biology, BS201 and BS301. seriously. and they are year 4 students. and they have no idea how an action potential works. and this course is for pre-med students. the only reason why i'm taking this course is because of the anatomy lab. paid $20, but tmr we're gonna zap cockroaches with electrical current and measure their magnitude of action potentials. something that i'd never ever get to do in NTU. yayyy. time to take my revenge on those creepy crawlies.

anyway here, all the health sciences are classified under the school of medicine. so technically, i'm a student in the school of medicine. so my classes are all in the health sciences building, which is linked to UW's medical center. fyi it's not like NTU's medical center. it's like NUH. a full-fledge hospital. and UW's medicine is quite well-known in the states. so a lot of times i walk around and see people in blue or green scrubs, doctors riding the same elevator or shuttle bus as me, lots of patients and i wonder again whether medicine is for me. and yes i get reminded once again of grey's anatomy.

speaking of which, i was just at the school of medicine bookstore just now to find my textbooks, and i saw gray's anatomy. the giant legendary textbook used by many many doctors and students. if i had excess lugguage space and weight and money, i'd just get one, just for the sake of keeping it. it was USD195 i think. and all you people back in singapore stop please stop complaining about the costs of textbooks. i know i will, because it is SSSOOO expensive here.

to my bs friends, you know the alberts book? the cell? it sells here for USD140. and they are using many many textbooks that we used too! so i keep seeing books like human genetics, immunobiology, principles of neural science and all. =) reminds me of you guys. hope the first day of school has been good. please update me on what's happening!

speaking of which...

happy birthday renchun and andrea! =)

ok i should update more often because now i end up typing a whole lot in one entry.

happening things so far. a party thrown by the singapore students' association of UW. we had italian food which was yummy, lots and lots of food. and beer and wine. still very mild compared to the typical american party. legal drinking age here is 21 anyway. so i'm safe. =) met some singaporeans studying at UW, many are graduate students. had a good time talking.

went for a NBA game. seattle sonics vs new york knicks. =) i know we're quite cool right. new york knicks somemore. seattle is not very good, we already knew that. the knicks won. but it was a great experience. having seen so much of american culture from the tv and movies i watch, it's quite surreal having experiencing it for myself. and this is just the start.

i miss Bethany a lot. i'm going to go to the university presbyterian church youth service tmr night and have a look. and i miss my home a lot. i wished i was back home. how odd right. but i'm glad this opportunity was given to me and how the Lord has shown me so much more than i could see if i were to be back in singapore. everyone i meet, everyday. the things i see and experience. the things i hear. the life i have here is quite different.

but in the midst of the changing world, i'm glad for things that are still ever so constant. like God who is always always there for me. and that never changes. His love and faithfulness is astounding. and i'll strive to be a good servant of the Lord and will develop that deep sense of love and faith in Him. constant things like sam, who is still the person i turn to for anything and everything. he's the person i tell everything to. he's the person that i'm most honest with. all the politics and gossips, every concern and emotion, he's there, just an email/msn/call away. constant things like my family. whom i feel being closer to even though i'm so far away. ironic right? i'm glad for the phonecalls and skype sessions. where i can feel like i'm back home with them.

alright. should go post more pictures to complement this post. in case you're not informed, pictures are here.

“That you may walk worthy of the Lord,
Fully pleasing Him in all things,
Being fruitful in every good work,
And increasing in the knowledge of God.”
- Colossians 1:10

Labels: life in seattle, UW

This girl posted at 6:34 AM

Thursday, January 04, 2007

9.

9 is the title of the new damien rice album and it has really explicit songs when you listen to the lyrics. but yet the melodies are so beautiful and his voice is just amazingly suited to each song. each tone. each nuance. each rise and fall. each emotion. i love the melodies, and occasionally the words. but some, like the 4th track, is just horrible to my ears 'cos i don't like it when people say the 4-letter word out loud.

anyway today was the first day of school. spent the day at pharmacology II, where the prof was quite humourous; calling men "rats" 3 times in 30 mins. and lectures are only 50 mins! but 3 times a week. i feel like i'm back in tj. then went to the health sciences library to settle my subjects. went to see a prof regarding enrolling into a graduate course.

the story goes like this. when i scroll through the UW subjects and the schools, i just picked out the modules that matches the mods i'm supposed to be taking back in NTU, like pharmacology and drug discovery and all. and i was able to find them. so i submitted the subject codes and all to our coordinator. that was back in dec. and when we arrived in seattle, ms chua the NTU GIP coordinator happily told me out of 6 of my courses i picked for winter quarter, 5 are year 5 modules. year 5 is 1st year masters degree courses. oh well done. and she tells me to pick undergraduate courses because the masters courses are really difficult and i won't be able to get in and the fees are more expensive.

so i launched into this debate with her that if i do not take those modules i won't be able to graduate from NTU and i already signed an agreement with MOE that i have to graduate within 4 years. if i didn't take those mods i'll have to stay back 1 year in NTU. and i tried to convince her in my politically correct tone and manner that maybe US school system is just a little less advanced than what we have in singapore. hence my year 3 and 4 modules are only taken by graduate students here.

yes. even their introduction to biochem is taught in year 4. and we did that in year 1.

so i was talking to my prof. and showing him my degree audit. and he was so surprised at the modules that i have taken and was telling me "wow you can go and get a phd now." and he was listing all the modules. "wow, development biology, neurobiology, BIOPHYSICS?!?!"

for once, i'm proud to be educated in the singapore system. all those endless nights of slogging through the lecture notes and tutorials. paid off in that single second. and i was immediately enrolled in the graduate course.

and graduate courses mean no exams and tons of readings and assignments and projects.

something i've never done before for a bio module.

challenges and more challenges.

just got accepted into another grad module for proteomics. at the fred hutchinson cancer research center campus! ohhhh there're like 3 nobel laureates there!

so exciting. but i have readings for tmr's class already. the first lesson of the course!! =(

ok time for dinner. wonder what shall we cook.

will ramble more next time. =)

everybody take care! please say hi to singapore food for me.

Labels: damien rice, life in seattle, UW

This girl posted at 9:53 AM