A Better Title

Dear Diary,

Whew… One week passed by so quickly. So many things have happened. So many admin stuff to be completed, an orientation to attend, friends to help, a tuition to give, computers to fix. So I’m now tired. (How many of the past few entries have I said that I was tired? Is blogging induced by tiredness? Hmmm…)

I made a lot of new friends, although after two years in a mixed school, I still find it hard to interact with girls.

Currently most of the new friends are from Indonesia. The new Indonesians still hang out in groups so when I meet a group in which I know at least a member, I’d get introduced to the rest of the group. There are a lot of Indonesians here. If I remembered correctly there are like 150+ Indonesians in my batch alone. In fact, wherever you go in NTU, you’ll most likely find an Indonesian there. There are so many of them that I found it hard to memorise all their names. There were a few times that I got introduced to the same person more than twice.

Speaking of new friends, who else in ACJC are going to NTU? So far I only saw Udo, Mars, Tai Tat, two SA3 girls, and two girls whose names I didn’t know. These last two suddenly came up to me before the welcome ceremony and then said a cheerful hey. I was a bit taken aback, trying to remember their names, thinking that I knew them. It turned out I really didn’t know any of them personally; we just knew that each of us was from ACJC. My NJC friend seems to have a lot of friends, judging from his reaction whenever we were walking together (”Oh my god, that’s another NJ student…”)

My timetable now is not too bad. It’s pretty packed on Mondays and Tuesdays with 6 hours each, but on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays I only have 3, 4, and 4 hours respectively. I’d probably be able to get exemption for Maths, Physics, and Computing, so if that’s the case (and if I understood the concept of subject exemption correctly) I’d have 3 hours on Mondays, 2 hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, and 4 hours on Friday. I’d be totally free on Thursdays.
That’s plenty of time to do a minor. I think I’m going to do a Minor in Communication Studies, because their modules are things like “Web Design and Management”, “Desktop Publishing” and “IT and New Media” which I (probably will) like to do anyway. It’s just the subject called “Fundamentals of Communication Studies” which I’m not too sure about. And it’s the pre-requisite to take up the three modules I mentioned. I think I’d just try it out, and if I end up not liking it, I’ll convert the AUs gained as General Elective, and take up another subject (either as GE or Minor).

Ok, what else… I’m still tutoring the same person I said in the past entry, tomorrow we’re going through Macromolecules and Esters. Which are under Chemistry. Die, die…

Oh yeah, I still haven’t passed the stuff I’m supposed to pass to my Aunt here. Uh oh. Haven’t contacted her yet… Die, die, die…

Die,

bcc

Dear Diary,

Oops, Hendri’s VoiceID software didn’t work properly again. So this morning I had a phone call from an unrecognised home number.

Me (M): Hello.
Caller (C): Hello.

The VoiceID software immediately registered the voice as Terence.

M: Hey!
C: Hendri?

Sounds just like Terence.

M: Yeah.
C: Hendri, where are you?

Definitely. It’s Terence.

M: Singapore.
C: Uh, where?

Huh? Something’s wrong.

M: Sorry, who’s this?
C: This is hall office.

OH SH00T!

Anyway, this day went quite well in fact. I moved into a room which is so quiet compared to the previous one. The only drawback is probably that it’s not as cool as the previous one. Facing the open air, the previous room was pretty windy. This room faces the wall of the canteen, so it’s not so windy. In fact, it’s a little warm in the day. Still, better than having a noisy environment.

The move itself was considered quite smooth, considering that the hall office said the process wasn’t easy it could take one or two weeks (which was why I didn’t expect the call from the office).

Also, moving to a new room means my roommate and I had to start all over again by cleaning up the dusty wardrobe and desk (the people coming into our previous room are very lucky. They got a squeaky clean room to start with). After this we had to rearrange all our things all over again.

The second session of tuition with my friend’s brother also went pretty well. In fact, if I had been unprepared for the first session, I was overprepared for today’s one. He wanted me to go through Thermal Physics, Waves, and Light. So I read all the topics over and over again to make sure I was really familiar with all of them. We ended up only finishing Waves. That means wasted time reading the other topics. Never mind. Now I remembered quite a bit about the other topics.
Tomorrow we’ll be going through Organic Chemistry. He said he didn’t need the roommate of mine to come over (although it would have been much, much better for both him and I since he would get better explanations and I wouldn’t have to re-read the topic again). So in case I really can’t help him in Organic Chemistry, he would ask other stuff from Physics or A Maths. I would still read the topic tomorrow though.

So today was fairly good.

(I still regret not going for orientation. I’d really want to know the others in the hall… Sigh…)

Heheheh,

bcc

Dear Diary,

I managed to get another room which doesn’t face the road. So it should be much quieter. My roommate and I will be moving there either tonight or tomorrow. Yay!

By the way, I think I should have joined the hall orientation. At least I would get to know some people in the hall. That would be a good starter before university starts. Unlike this time when I really don’t know anyone at all. Orientation has already started, so I don’t think I can join any of the groups. And anyway even if I do join them now, I would be quite out of place because I would have missed some sessions like the get-to-know-each-other session.

What a great decision… Sigh…

bcc

Dear Diary,

Can’t.

Sleep.

It’s.

So.

Damn.

Freaking.

Bloody.

Noisy.

Will ask for a change of rooms later today. Wish me luck.

ARGH!

bcc

Dear Diary,

In case you’re one of the ones who got a towel from 7-Eleven for buying a $20 Singtel phonecard, beware! The towel will stain your clothings. Not only that, some of the fluffy material on the towel will get attached to some of your clothings too. It stained one of my white T-shirts and put green stuff all over one of my polo T-shirts and one of my black long pants. Although I believe these ’stuff’ can be removed using sticky tape, the process would be a tedious one.

Ok, it was actually my fault. I didn’t have the presence of mind to separate the white T-shirt and other coloured clothings. What really upset me, however, was the fact that I’ve just worn that particular T-shirt once. And I happen to like it quite a lot. Never mind the black long pants and the old polo T-shirt.

Sigh…

By the way, the past few entries in my blog reminds of last year when almost the whole of my blog consisted of rants… Hmmm…

Launderer,

bcc

Dear Diary,

Gawd, I can’t believe I’m reading O Level Chemistry guide now…

I was tutoring this brother of my friend’s at the latter’s request. According to the old conversation that I had with the friend, I was supposed to tutor Maths and Physics, and probably from time to time Chemistry. I said OK to the first two, but I couldn’t promise on Chemistry because it has been at least two and a half years since I last touched the subject.

Today, as I was at his place for the first time, I was requested to do Chemistry. And guess what I said? “Yes, but I would have to revise on the topics myself first”.

By the way, the tuition itself went pretty badly because, this was the first time ever I give a tuition, and I wasn’t sure on what to do. Moreover, it has been quite a while since I last touched any school subjects, and so I wasn’t sure how to present the answers in the correct way. Also, I just realised that I kinda forgot how to do certain Maths questions in the correct way. I was totally unprepared for this session. I wasn’t even sure whether he wanted me to go through the topics or just go through sample questions. And I doubt he had understood what I was trying to explain today.

So what I did after leaving his place was going to Orchard to get THREE guidebooks, one each for Chemistry, Physics and Maths.

Physics and Maths are not too bad, because I know most of the stuff in Physics, and I just need to recap on how to present the answers for Maths. Chemistry is probably quite a problem for me, having not taking the subject in JC.

So here I am now, reading O Level Organic Chemistry again for the first time after almost three years. And I’m getting quite desperate at it. What is ‘addition reaction’ or ‘esterification’? I was thinking that I would get my roommate to go in my place when the kid wants to do Chemistry; my roommate is quite good in Chemistry. Let’s see if both of them agrees…

Gyaaa!

What’s wrong with me?!?

[Update]: By the way, it does feel like cramming stuff one day before an exam…

[Update 2]: Actually… I think I couldn’t say no because it was my friend who asked me. In case you read this: I’ll try the best I can do to help your brother.

Aromatic,

bcc

Dear Diary,

Today is my second day. I met quite a couple of other Indonesian freshmen from other halls. It’s quite interesting to note that according to the person in charge of the Indonesians in my hall, I was the only Indonesian freshman (Halim being the second one). So accompanied by the seniors, we finished a lot of administration matters that need to be done before the term starts.

Today we reported our arrival at the Office of Admissions, paid our hostel acceptance fees and had our medical check-up plus X-Ray at Jurong Point (Remind me to pass the furnitures checklist and the hostel acceptance payment receipt to the hall office tomorrow please…).

As this was the first time the others were in Singapore, none of them had any Singapore bank account. So at this point of time Udo and I parted from the group. I headed to the bank to open a giro account (Udo having opened his earlier when he deposited some money).

After we were done, we went to Sim Lim. I was to help Chalat and Udo choose a configuration for the computers they were going to buy. I never knew there were so many possible configurations of the computer that we can choose, and so, Chalat ended up choosing the components by himself.

The shop where we bought the computer was the one called Costronic (Thanks to Daniel for telling me what shop to look for). The shopkeeper was very friendly and she helped us out getting the computer according to Chalat’s wish. Chalat ends up with an AMD 2500 MHz computer with an 80 GB hard drive, 512 MB RAM, DVD-writer, an nVidia Geforce video card (can’t remember the model), and an 15″ LCD monitor. Udo, having less knowledge on computers, chose to use the exact same configuration as Chalat, except that he had an AMD 2600 instead of 2500 (they only had one AMD 2500 MHz in stock), a CD-writer instead of DVD-writer, and had a CRT monitor in place of Chalat’s LCD. (I love LCD’s. They’re so small and so light compared to CRT’s. If only their price is not that high)

The shop also has this free assembling service, although in our case we had to wait until tomorrow before we can collect the assembled computer.

After this, we had our dinner, bought plug splitters for each of us, and speakers for Chalat and Udo. Then we went home.

This is a pretty dull narration, isn’t it?

As I said in the earlier post, I couldn’t sleep last night.

That’s all for today.

bcc

Dear Diary,

Ok, I have a problem. My room faces one of the expressways (I think it’s PIE). And the window design of the room is such that it’s open at the bottom. Plus as you may know, the contrast between the quiet and the loud is accentuated in the night. So that makes it sound damn bloody loud whenever a car passes by on the expressway. Extra decibels go to motorcycles and lorries. That makes me can’t sleep even at this time. (By the way, I have a medical checkup scheduled for today)

Sucks.

[Update]: Dammit, and I’m hungry too.

Can’t Sleep,

bcc

Dear Diary,

This is just to let you know that I’m already back in Singapore, and am currently at NTU Hostel. Two reports can be made of this hostel: Dirt flow out of the faucet in addition to water in one of the toilets, and my keys was almost stuck outside my door. I managed to take it out after five minutes of rocking the key inside the keyhole.

Today there were quite a few happenings. But I’m too tired to type them out. So I’ll save this for later, which usually means that I don’t write about it at all.

Bleagh,

bcc

Dear Diary,

Whew… Just finished packing. Now it’s only slightly less than 11 hours before the flight. I really should get some sleep. I have to be at the airport at the latest at 10 AM, which means I have to leave home before 7 AM. It’s quite a long journey from my house to the airport. It will be longer if there’s a traffic jam somewhere along the way.

Oh yeah, I just found out that Dad has this huge, yellow Mentari bag. (For the benefit of those who are not Indonesian, Mentari is the name of a mobile phone network) And I’m going to bring it to Singapore. It’s quite useful to bring clothes or equipments if and when I go camping. It would be much nicer if the colour is not bright yellow.

More Tired,

bcc