Tiring week

This week has been really tiring for me... There is this thing in my economics course that is really beneficial for student's learning but really turns out to be the student's nightmare. For my economics course, there is a weekly quiz and this encourages students to revise their work every week... I guess its fine for me since its still quite math driven in the first few weeks... but nonetheless, it took me some time to study for the quiz on monday.

I had my first spanish quiz on wednesday and it seems like it didn't turn out very well... i couldn't do some part of the quiz and that didn't feel too good... I guess one of the main reasons is that i couldn't get much good sleep on tue night. I was having a job interview on wednesday (don't ask me with who coz i din get the job) and that probably caused me some sleep.

Anyway, just in case i don't sound coherent, i guess its coz i'm kinda tired... got quite a bit of stuff to do this week... haha... but the good thing is that weekend's coming and I'm going to be able to get a good sleep on friday night! haha...

Initially was planning for a DC trip but was cancelled last minute as You An left for a conference. Nonetheless, next week will be skydiving and i'm pretty excited about it! will update you guys about it next week! haha...

Just to end my post as I normally would, this is my menu for the past few days:

Yam's Kitchen Menu for 24th to 27th September

Fried Spaghetti with Salmon


western Nasi Lemak (i.e. substitute ikan bilis with panfried salmon)

虾酱鸡 with rice + 0.5 腊肠

(seriously, the 虾酱鸡 was really good... comparable to some 煮炒摊位)

Cooked tofu with pork and prawns... looks delicious right!

Yupz... that's it!

A successful attempt

Hey guys,

nothing much is coming along... i'm trying hard to work on my food... this entry is going to be short... just want to show you my successful attempt... chicken chop with spaghetti (with eggs)... wahaha...

New York Saturday

¡Hola Amigos!

As promised, i will be showing you guys pics of my new york trip. Seriously, being back in NYC for the second time in a month isn't really exciting. Same places, same people. I don't think i'll go back to NYC anytime soon.

Anyway, the day started at around 0845 when Ivy, Janan, Kieren and I met at my place. After taking a short trolley ride to 30th Street, we boarded the P2P (Philadelphia <-> New York PENN Station) bus. Its really not that expensive with 25 bucks return tickets. After my 2-hour nap, we arrived at New York City Penn Station (i.e. 34th Street), beside Madison Square Garden. With Janan strongly demanding to go check out the statue of liberty, i brought them towards wall street where he could take photos with both the bull and the statue of liberty. Problem came when we arrived at wall street. The skies turned dark and it started to rain. The drizzle slowly grew and eventually became a downpour. As we sought shelter near battery park, i left the group to meet renhua for lunch.

Lunch with renhua was really good. After many years, i finally get to meet up with him for a small chat. Really appreciated that we could meet up and talk abt everything from the past to the future. Thanks dude!

After lunch with renhua, i joined back the group at times square. Times Square was a bit different from when i was there with may. Firstly, there was the naked cowboy. Basically, he's an artiste who stands in the middle of Times Square wearing only briefs and carrying a guitar. He was quite an icon for times square. Hoardes of Ang Moh women rushed towards him and gave him tips to take pictures with them. I guess the Ang Mohs are really kinda open. The second thing different about times square was that there was a pasar malam along 7th avenue. The Pasar Malam was really big but the stuff was damn expensive. Imagine a corn dog for US$5? Siao bo...

Other places where we visited in Times Square included M&Ms shop, Hershey shop and other shops. Anyway, there was this machine in M&Ms that was supposed to test the type of personality (represented by a color) you had. Keiren bet that it would be orange (stereotype of a smux lover). As we were all curious, i stepped on the platform to get my personality tested. After being "scanned" by the machine, i was told that my color is "dark pink" and that i am friendly and amable. Wahah... how true indeed =]

The day ended with some shopping and eventually a dinner opposite madison square garden. The dinner totally sucked. It was an italian fast food restaurant. I ordered a small plate of pasta and a large root beer. I paid freaking 10+ USD for it... it really sucked. Fortunately for me, mine was one of the cheapest. Meatball pasta cost Kieran about 12+ USD. Janan paid 15+ for Alfredo pasta with 2 meatballs... totally expensive and totally disgusting.

All right, so here's a summary of the places that I've been in NYC:
1) Madison Square Garden
2) Wall Street (NYSE + the Bull)
3) Chelsea District for lunch
4) Times Square
5) Manhattan Mall
6) Borders @ Madison Square Garden

Here's some pics:

NYSE

NASDAQ @ Times Square

The "Pasar Malam" @ 7th Avenue

The Naked Cowboy @ Times Square

Picture of Me (baby wanna see right?)

I'm a dark pink M&Ms!

Time to do some boxing!

Last but not least, let me once again show you some pictures of the food i've cooked recently... seems like food is getting better! haha...

Fried Pasta with Turkey and Cheese

Fried Pasta with Corn Beef (Served with 1 piece chicken)

Potato Stew... this really tastes nice... nicer than the one my mum made!

rightz... so what can we look forward to this week? 1 Spanish Quiz, 1 Econs Quiz and 1 Interivew... bleahz!

Life this week is so-so

Hi all (¡Hola Amigos!),

note: most stuff in brackets are in spanish

life after white water rafting is not exactly very interesting (interesante). Its the same process everyday. As the classes (clases) at PENN is quite spread out, i don't get to travel (viajar) much here except during weekends (sábado y domingo)! What a bummer! I guess its also clear that i'm trying to work on my spanish (español). I'm having my first spanish quiz next wed (Miércoles). haha...

Nonetheless, there are stuff this week (semana) that i look forward to. I'm applying for jobs here and the interviews (entrevista) will be scheduled by this friday (viernes). Let's hope i can get a least a few interviews. I'm quite pessimistic (pesimista) about it though.

The next thing that i look forward to is the weekend. So far, i think i might be heading down to new york city on saturday (sábado) just to chill out... nonetheless, nothing is really confirmed yet. sianz... =(

Anyway, the main part of this post is to show you guy some new creations i made this week (semana). Anyway, i think cooking is the only thing that motivates me (mí) nowadays... wahaha... (food names are in brackets)

Fried Macaroni with Turkey and Cheese

Wanton Mee with Guo Tie and Hot Dogs (When the east meets the west)



Rice with meetballs, prawns, mushrooms and sunny side up

(Rising sun over the seas)

Looks like chao guo tiao right? haha... its just fried turkey with rice

Tomato cooked with eggs and meat (my mum taught me how to cook this)

Finally, Yujian's 香鸡排

Yupz... i'll update you guys about this weekend next week then! ¡Adíos!

Weekend of Fun...

Hey peepz,

it has been 2 days since i've updated my blog... there is someone who actually msned me and ask me why i haven't been updating my blog... hmmm... no worries! here i am back to update my blog! Right, my weekend has just ended and its time to hit the books. I've got a quiz tomorrow (i.e. around 12hrs down) but i guess it should be rather easy considering that it's only a 15min quiz. Anyway, the weekend was really eventful but really tiring...

Basically, i spent the WHOLE of saturday shopping @ franklin mills. Its an outlet factory shopping mall where you can get cheap stuff. I went with 3 other guys (kieren, you an and janan (janan is an exchange student from university of queensland)) and we shopped from 1030am to around 9pm. Nonetheless, at the end of the day, I didn't really buy anything. I only bought the following:
1) 2 x manicure sets @ US$20 each (for you-know-who)
2) 1 x mini-mantle that attaches to my bed @ US$10
I also received a gift from Kieren, a laddle set for me to cook (worth US$1)

Here's some pics:

this is a cool machine. basically, it challenges you to think about whether a coin's weight has to do with the speed it ROLLS down the thing above. There is a hole in the center and basically what you're supposed to do is to release 2 different size coins from identical points on both sides of the circle and see which falls through the hole first. We're supposed to test whether heavier (i.e. bigger coins) rolls down faster. This question is different from the one that Galileo (double check whether its him) did. Its not a freefall question but a question about coins ROLLING down... my hypothesis is that the big coin will fall in first but the reason is because of a larger circumference and not due to its weight... that means that although the bigger coin will fall faster, its due the its larger circumference leading it to cover larger ground per unit time. After doing some checking, we realize that the bigger coin does indeed fall faster. Anyway, it is also clearly marked as a "NOT non-profit item". This means that the "inventor" of this machine is making money from it (the money that you use to test the hypothesis and lose it at the end). All right.. here's more pics...

franklin mills entrance

lunch... really doesn't look appetizing right... and it costs US$5.95

A skatepark INSIDE franklin mills... SMUX should have this built in school...

Ok... up next is my White Water Rafting trip on Sunday. The whole event was from 8am and ended around 8pm for my group. It was @ Lehigh River Gorge and you can check out the website at http://www.whitewaterchallengers.com/... The trip was not bad and the way the University of Pennsylvania Outdoor Club (UPOC) organized it was quite different from my experience in SMUX. It was less structured and more free-flowing. Basically, after we met up in the morning, we just hang around to chat. This time, 4 people were driving and we randomly divided ourselves into the 4 vehicles. We then started a 2+hr self-navigated (navigation done by my fren Roman - see the tall & big guy at the back of the pictures below) to the Lehigh River Gorge whitewaterchallengers area.

When we reached there, it was all settled by the group (i.e. the vehicle group) themselves. Although we hung around at the same areas and sorta chatted with one another, we kinda stick within our own groups. After checking-in, getting our wetsuits and equipment, we waiting a while for a transportation to bring us to the start point. The briefing was done by professional instructors (they really remind me of the PA Instructors) and we were ready to set off. As much as the river was not as hiongz as the one I did in Nepal with the EBC team, it was still quite fun. What was most impressive was that I see ALOT and i really mean ALOT of white water kayakers. They were all in those stunt boats (check out the pics, its those super small ones) and they were chionging down the river... its really quite fun... the level of this part of the river is still quite low and i think you don't really need to know eskimo rolls... in fact, i see open deck kayaks around.... hmm... maybe next time i should go check it out...

check out the kayaks!

kayakers' silhouettes

my raft's crew (les Janan)

my raft's crew (less me)

me...

i really want to tell you guys more about the trip but i'm kinda in a hurry now since i haven't bathed since i got back! eee.... So last but not least, the standard thing that i usually end my blog with... my dinner on friday... its fried rice with western hao jian... wahahah....

fried rice with western haojian (i.e. omellete with mushroom & cheese)

right... seeya guys!

Good deals!

Harlow everyone!

i'm really motivated to blog today due to 2 reasons:
1) I've made very good deals today
2) I've made very good lunch today

Haha... okiez, before i touch on the issues above, let me just show you guys some pictures of UPENN. I took a walk around school today and shot some pics. But i'm only showing you guys some pictures which I think you might be interested in seeing.

Jon Huntsman Hall (this is School of Wharton's building)

This is building is the representation of Wharton on postcards and pictures

the quad... this is the park in the center of the freshmen's accomodation

the quad from another view

Good deals
Ok, next up are the deals. There is this shop near my place that is called Eastern Mountain Sports (http://www.ems.com/). They are clearing out and moving to a bigger place. As such, they have clearance sales! In US, the clearance are like damn hiongz. They put a ADDITIONAL 70% OFF on the lowest price tag. So i picked up 3 very very very good deals. They are (see pictures below for more details):

1) Outdoor Research Gortex Hat (US$8.99)

2) Northface Cotton Cap (US$x.xx)

3) EMS Dri-fit Cap (US$x.xx)

the two caps are meant as presents... so i cannot tell you the price. however, all i can say its that its damn cheap... wahahaha!!!

Anyway, i also refunded by Derivatives textbook (coz i think the prof don't really use it too) and got back US$135.85... wahahah!!!

There's another good deal that i found... OIP (Penn's OIR equivalent) has decided to clear the stuff that the last batch has left behind. They asked us to go and grab whatever we want and they'll throw away the rest. wahaha... I found lots of stuff man.. I should have just grabbed everything and hold a sale! But in the end I (only) grabbed:

1) 1 professional looking dustbin

2) 3 china plates

3) 1 seperator (those for washing vegetables)

4) 1 sock hanger

5) 1 table lamp

6) 1 power extension

7) 1 electric kettle (those that boil damn fast)

yupz... wahaha.. that's it!!!Good Lunchokiez... next up is my lunch... i tried to be a little creative today and fried an omellete. I started with only prawns... but in the end added cheese too! whoa... its damn nice... let me show you guys!

Prawn Omellete with Cheese

my lunch...

Ok peepz... that's it! seeya guys soon!

Life on Campus

Life has actually been quite ok here at Penn...

Basically, my life only revolves around a few things:
1) Going for class
2) Reading up for class
3) Writing cover letters for job applications
4) Reading up for PLEASURE
5) Exercising
6) COOKING!!!

Travelling has not come in because school only just started and I want to make sure that job application season is more or less settled before I start travelling around... Basically, here's my plan:

Tour Plan
Chicago - Fall Break (between 13th and 16th October)
Boston - trying to steal a weekend for a quick getaway
Toronoto - Thanksgiving (spend with family members)
Los Angeles - After term (it is already confirmed)
Las Vegas?
Yosemite Park?
Other parts of west coast?

Ok anyway, the thing is that i have already rescheduled my return flight to Singapore to fly back from LA. I will also be transiting at Taipei (for obvious reasons) for around 6 days before flying back to Singapore. Thus, this gives me the days between 19th December and 30th December to spend at the west coast... i wonder where I can go... suggestions anyone?

Ok... the next part of my blog is as usual dedicated to Yam's Kitchen... haha... let me just show everyone what i cooked for lunch and dinner today... Lunch was Chinese while Dinner was WESTERN!!! wahaha....

Yam's Kitchen Menu for September 11th 2007

LUNCH MENU

Fried Prawns with Bean Sprouts and Mushrooms (Harvest of the 3 treasures)

DINNER MENU

Fried Chicken with Embeded Cheese

(doesn't really look nice but the taste is real good)

Here's the ingredients:

Ok... anyway, the dinner is really nice... out of some luck, the chicken was just nice (i.e. soft and tender) and the cheese melted nicely into the chicken meat... seriously... its the best meal i've made so far... woohoo!!!

Life is getting mundane

Hi all,
its me again... life's getting really mundane recently... Although I have only 4 courses, the number of hours per week totals up to 14 hours (which is only 1 hour short of 5 mods). The reason is because my spanish class happens for 1 hour everyday (i.e. 5 hours in the week). Nonetheless, i enjoy my spanish class and I think my spanish is improving.

Anyway, after almost 1 week of classes at UPENN, all i have to say is that people here are really vocal. Although there are no class participation scores, UPENN students have been constantly asking question so that they can understand their stuff better. Kudos! I think that's the spirit and not asking questions for class participation. I would be happy if class participation were to become a lesser part the final grade back in SMU. It has messed up some people's minds thinking that everyone out there is trying to talk for marks (although some are). Asking for knowledgei think is a very impt part of education. I was taught that "学问，学问" if you want to 学, then you must 问! Let's all remember that asking for knowledge is the underlying reason for class participation. Scores are an extrinsic motivation which should not change your underlying actions... remember that...

Anyway, back to the students in UPENN, i think the reason why they ask good questions is because they have good experience. I really don't want to go back and write a long paper about the perpetuating wealth of the rich or the congregation of the well-off. Nonetheless, I guess that's the fact in life. With the rich enrolled in the same school as the rich, the rich will only get smarter (due to the availability of exposure opportunities). I guess these people had more opportunities than the whole asia put together and that's the reason for intelligent questions in class.

Oh! I also want to mention that I'm really happy that I can read much faster now than before! I have completed 2 books while I am here at UPENN. 2 interesting books (1 x non-fiction and 1 x fiction). The first book is called liar's poker and i'm sure many finance students have read this. I strongly recommend this books to those who are interested in Sales and Trading and would like to know more about the origination of the Asset Bank Securities / mortgages bonds (which is also the problem leading to credit crunch now) and high yield debt. The 2nd book is called "Flowers for Algernon". Due to strong recommendation from May, i embarked on a journey to finish my FIRST-EVER fiction book, and OMG... its really damn nice... I was so touched I almost cried when i finish the book... Its really a nice book exploring things ranging from ethics to psychology and from sex to love... I STRONGLY RECOMMEND THIS BOOK!

Anyway, for those who are worried that i might grow fat, i just want to assure you guys that i still exercise. For the past 5 days, i've exericsed 3 days (2 x swim of 30 x 50m and 1 x 5km run). I will continue to exercise so that i would not be putting on too much weight.

Nonetheless, i am still continuing to be ambitious with my cooking and here's some pictures to show you my recent meals:

Yam's Kitchen Menu:

Fried Beef with Eggs and Onion & Rice (When the Chicken meets the "Hen (ham)")

The rising sun reflected in the ocean
(Noodles with prawns, lettuce, hot dog and half-boiled egg)

guo tie (yes i made it)

Some Restaurant that the few of us ate in

fish maw soup with crab meat


fried beef kuay teow

xiao long bao

Ok folks! That's it! seeya next time!

End of the First Week

Hey peepz,

it seems like time's getting a bit more loose for me... that's why i can start blogging more often. Anyway, today's blog will not really be talking about the first week of class but more about the surrounding environment of UPENN.

You guys probably already know about the class situation (i.e. Wharton is really competitive... trust me, SMU is really not as competitive, although its getting near) Now let me just show you a picture of my Econs classroom. Its a little better than the Spanish classroom but not much better off...

Econs Classroom (Fisher-Bennet Hall)

All right... next up, let me just show you some pictures of the school:

Campus Green

(yes! they also have a campus green... people play games and stuff on the green)

i wonder whether we copied their name... hmmm... trust me, there are lots of stuff in SMU that looks like those in UPENN... i really wonder...

one of the frat houses... they all have greek names

You guys might want to find out more about frat(ernity) houses... all i've HEARD about them so far is that people organize parties (sometimes closed door ones) and they just get wasted and eventually get laid... i've got no personal experience in this but i heard that this is what they called American culture... Of course, there are fraternities that organize meetings and just hang out... i guess its just some that are like that... but anyway, personally, i'm not into this...

one of the high rises (dormitories)

I thinks its like the PGP of NUS... basically i've been to my friend's room and take a look... its actually ok... a little smaller than my room just that the building is newer than mine... however, its really more expensive than mine... compared to mine, a similar type of room will cost about US$4200+ per sem while mine costs US$2600+. hmmm... not worth it i think...

Next up is due to "popular" request... however, i'm sure you guys would be interested in this... UPENN's climbing wall! The thing is that i don't think they have panels... no panels at all... so maybe cannot change... but really, it looks nice... its 4 storeys high and the top of the building is a glass ceiling so you can see the sky... makes it feel like really wall... anyway, it has protruding parts on every route... i've seen beginners climb it... for rainbow routes, it seems easy... maybe i should go try it out...

the wall from the bottom

the wall from the top

the top part of the wall

told you about the ceilings

rockclimber trying to climb

one more look from the bottom...

all right... just to share with you guys, i've decided to sign up for 3 outdoor activities this semester at UPENN. They are (in chronological order):

1) Deleware Canoe Trip (29th September, 8am - 5pm, US$75)

2) Appalachian Trail Day Hike (27th October, 930am - 6pm, US$30)

3) Lehigh Bike Trip (3rd November, 9am - 5pm, US$80)

All of the above are non-member prices, comes with rental and shuttles to & fro UPENN. Seriously, outdoor activites here are damn expensive man... but the outdoor products here are really damn cheap! haha... *recalls my scoop at Northface outlet shop*

Speaking about outlet shops, i'll be visiting franklin mills tomorrow. Its one of the outlet shops at Philadelphia. I'll try to buy stuff from there. But if you guys need to buy anything, please visit www.ems.com. There is a shop below my accomodation. I can help you guys buy... but weight might be a problem...

All right, last but not least, here's my lunch today... I named it "conquering the seas and the continents". May named my ramen (see previous post) as "Swimming Turkey"... hahah... okies, that's it folks!

conquering the seas and the continents (US$1.75)

(contains eggs, prawns, turkey ham and rice)

Chao Amigos!