I was just looking through Japanese products and I think it’s irrefutable that they make the cutest, cutest things! 
So I compiled an image of what I felt were some things I wished I had – too cute!
Oh, and proving that I am still in the Singaporean vein of things, I know that xiaxue got married. So happy for her! I think the proposal was the sweetest thing, and so unexpected. And because I have to rush out in less than half an hour to have Vietnamese food with my friend before he heads off to Princeton tomorrow, I shall list down things that I am thankful for:
1. That God made a way to my change in major to Asian Studies. I have been deliberating over it for ages because I love everything to do with Asian culture and I very much am intellectually unstimulated in Policy work and I thought I would never have the chance to transfer PLUS accelerate my coursework. But I just received new last week that the Board approved it! 
D That said, at the beginning of the semester, the Transfer Dean actually told me that my case would only have a 2% success rate. God works against all odds, AMEN!
2. Friends – I’m starting to really love my house (: And quite sad that people will be slowly leaving one by one starting from tonight. Mehmehmehmeh. ):
3. Food and cooking – I really love cooking now. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks I’ll be spending alone here, I’ll indulge in arts & craftsy and gastronomic adventures!
4. Amazon, Ebay – the most amazing websites in the world <3 I love you, my darlings. If only I had more money.
5. My new phoooone! My previous one got waterlogged (don’t ask) so I went out and bought a new Verizon wireless LG env3 yesterday: 
Because we had our very first semester in Ithaca without snow (without snow. without. snow. srsly.), now Ithaca’s weather is overcompensating for it by having hail-like blizzards nightly. Abso-frigging-ly delightful. I went out to the Commons in the middle of my licensing course yesterday in the middle of the blizzard to grab some pizza. The great thing about Ithaca is that it has the highest ratio of people to restaurants and the pizza parlor I walked into yesterday happened to have pizzas ranked #1 in Ithaca.
It was amazing, the selection. They didn’t have whole pizzas of just a singular flavor. It was a mix-and-match place and I chose something safe with something I’ve never seen before – Hawaiian & Artichoke with Pesto. Mmm, mmm! Very good indeed. The slices were humongous though, so I’ve them spread over my dinner, this morning’s breakfast and I still have 1/4 of each slice left, which I shall have for lunch. Buuurrpp.
In any event, I am filled with dread about the coming week because it would mean that I will be in this house ALONE (just because everyone’s flying back this time around and I’m not) until the 29th of December. Yep, Christmas in Ithaca sounds delightful…Sigh.
Had my last final today and it did not end on as buoyant a note as I wish it would have. Nonetheless, I celebrated the end of my examinations by treating myself to an Anthropologie bag. (: Will blog more in the next month or so since it’s literally winter break for me now! It’s awesome ending finals early – most of my house mates just started today, some have not even started yet. That said, I don’t think anyone (except me) is going to sleep tonight, all of them seem to have major papers (or two) lined up tomorrow. 
P.S. If anyone is wondering what would be the significance of the header – it’s a character from my favorite book (so far) by Haruki Murakami’s “Kafka on the Shore”. (:
Okay, so we come to the end of yet another semester (!??). It’s been crazy, this past week. So many loose ends to tie up and problem sets to submit. Funny thing is, for the first time, I have really, really enjoyed all my classes this semester and was kind of upset when each of my classes took its turn to round up this past week. :’( Joel’s here all the way from California so today we headed out to Tamarind, a Thai restaurant place in the Commons (which is awesome shizz) and it was FANTABULOUSLY LIP-SMACKING. ^_^ I’m also going to hand in my cheque to Campus Cru for Christ tonight for my Spring break mission trip to Guatemala. Please pray that:
- It will be a good time for me to know God and my fellow brothers and sisters better
- It will be done in the right heart and at the right time
- I won’t be bombarded with work immediately after so I will have a restful spirit during the trip
- I will be able to get financial sponsorship to cover at least part of my program costs
Hmm…that’s it for now! Will let you know if I have any other prayer requests that come up along the way.Thanks guys (: and thank God for His provision!
Anyway, before I plunge myself headfirst into studying for finals (woohoo!!! just joking.), let me share with you some photos from my Chicago trip (the one with the gorgeous scenery of a tree and sunset is taken from Cornell’s Libe Slope though. Just loved it so much I wanted to share.)! It’s an amazing city, there’s awesome Chinese food and bubble tea and great shopping. I love Tianni! ((: Can’t wait to see her again soon in December once these finals (ugh) are over.
I’m in Chicago to spend my Thanksgiving! (: It’s been a blast meeting the UChig people and Tianni’s been especially hospitable!
Went karaoke-ing in Chinatown yesterday and ate at this swanky place called Medici in Hyde Park, where they unabashedly tout themselves as The Place Where Obama Dines. Even the back of their shirts have the slogan in bold, “OBAMA EATS HERE”. (YES, OKAY I GEDDIT.) Their thin crust spinach and cheese pizza is to die for! Took loads of pictures in that place so I’ll post it up once I get my uploading device (which is sadly, still in Ithaca).
We later went over to Adrian’s apartment in Regency (which is like a luxury condo), where they have an indoor swimming pool and doorman and shizz like that. Really posh undergraduate living, though you might run into the occasional professional or professor running next to you on the treadmill. Oh, and even Obama. (Yes, he works out there.) Apparently, he went to use the gym the day after he won the elections and their were like 20 of his bodyguards guarding the gym, which led to complaints of elitism (in the gym) or such.
Anyway, will be leaving in an hour or less for some tasty Thanksgiving spread at Oaklawns with Tianni and her other friends so I’m really excited. Lunch will be costly but hey, at least it isn’t a buffet (can’t control myself) and it only rolls around once a year!
Crap. I have so much work to do that I just don’t feel like doing – Chicago’s an amazing city (especially when you have a wonderful host!)
xoxo,
Cheryl
this just got me cracking up
I was having a lunch date with Natasha (!!:D) at Miyake’s a couple of days ago and we were discussing Indians (she’s one, but she’s a ABI: American-born Indian).
Well, essentially, for those who haven’t been through the American education system, one thing you realize when you come from an Asian classroom [when no one asks questions for the fear of looking stupid in front of everyone and preferring instead to lock oneself up in your bedroom and ponder over the question for years on end OR talk to your teacher after class (my preferred method)] to an American classroom when everyone talks before thinking and Professors cheerily enthuse, “Good question!” even when it’s a reeeeally dumb question (happens very, very often.).
Natasha says it’s because everyone has been taught that ‘no question is stupid’ since they were young. I think we back in Singapore were taught that too but we probably had snider teachers and snider classmates who were always ready to cut you down if your question bordered on the ‘ZOMG ARE YOU EFFING TARDED’ scale. Unlike here. And to be honest, since I’ve came to America, I have lowered my question-asking standards. BS is the way to go, really. Just as long as you talk to the Prof. But I digress.
So in my Multiple Regressions class, there are a few guys who are constantly on a roll of asking inane questions on all 3 days we meet a week. Like the kind when you really want to slap them around a bit and go, “Hey man, the Prof said that 20 seconds ago and you are asking it. Are you kidding me??’ One of them is a Latino who is a bloody ass-kisser from the first semester I’ve known him. He seems to be really rude to people he thinks are FOBs (fresh off the boats i.e International students) or not as popular. Plus he’s the ultimate braggart. He kind of looks like a chimpanzee, no exaggeration. And his questions always have me rolling my eyes at them, I’m so afraid they’ll get stuck in that position if this class were more than a semester. Okay, for example, we had an equation:
Y= B0X1 + B1X2 + u
We had been dealing with this since Day 1 of the class. Somewhere in the later part of the semester, he asked the prof: “So… X1 and X2 are like the coefficients right?” WHAT?!!?! Seriously, my math is kind of bad but like, duuuude. Middle school math? How did you come to Cornell?
Anyway, so our Prof is a really nice Stanford dude who willingly takes all these dumb questions without flinching (AMAZING). But one day, he couldn’t make it to class and the Indian (born and bred) TA took over.
Another guy asked a really dumb question about exogeneity, which bore absolutely no relevance to the topic at hand. And the Indian TA ftw-ly bellowed (I swear!):
“What are you talking about exogeneity for? We are not even dealing with exogeneity here. Why are you always asking these kinds of irrelevant questions? This really PISSES ME OFF YOU KNOW!”
The whole class were stunned into shocked silence, basically because all of their years in American schooling, they probably haven’t received feedback that their questions are dumb (seeing that they’re Cornell kids, even less likely). Then people started laughing at the absurdity of the situation.
To be honest, I felt a bubbling sense of satisfaction. It was about time these kids got a check on their questions.
You gotta love those Indians.
Words of wisdom and comfort, eh.
In other news, I think I’m the heaviest sleeper in the world. I took a nap last night at 9pm and asked my friend to wake me up. I think I felt some sprinkles of water on my face (I gave permission prior to going to bed cos I knew what a horrible task it is to wake me up) and an exasperated voice calling, “Cheryl, Cheryl? …ughhhh. Cheryl, come ooooonnnn. Wake uuup. Cheryyyyyl…” which of course, my druggily sleepy self duly ignored.
Now it is 628AM and I’ve slept through 4 alarms. Gawrsh. I don’t know why I sleep so much! Maybe I’m just clearing up my sleep debt from the past 20 years of my life…
D:!
Sorry for not blogging. I’ve been having some downtime curling up with my Haruki Murakami’s ‘Kafka on the Shore’ and devouring every single word. I should have started reading him earlier when my friends recommended him! It’s been quite a while since I have read something that’s entirely for leisure because of my hectic schedule.
Met Juhee for lunch today and it’s amazing how much about Korea I’m learning. She used to play with BoA when she was young! It really seems like all Koreans kind of know each other once they reach a certain class. I guess it’s the same for Singapore. Cooked brussel sprouts with enoki mushrooms and baked buttered salmon today because I read GQ and this chef was obsessing over the versatility of brussel sprouts so I asked WX to get some. I think it belongs to the same family as mustard and wasabi because it has that oddly burning taste. Didn’t really like it, but the salmon was good. (: (on my way to) DOMESTIC GODDESSHOOD!
(me in 15 years or so. rly.)
Booked winter tickets today – going to Greece, Egypt & Turkey!
In Ithaca! (((:
No cameras allowed so I can’t post anything up but I’m psyched for it!
This weekend has been just downtiming for me after 2 crazy weeks.
