first rehearsal at the university of york choir.

culture shock.

there are three hundred individuals forming the university choir.

the alto section has sixty people.

that's more than twice the people we usually had at alumni practices.

and that's more than ten times the altos we had in my batch.

ppp is sung as fff and fff is sung as ffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffffff.

scary, sia.

ciao.

my first assignments.

i know the title of this entry is probably the best indication that this is going to be the world's most boring blog entry, so yes, the wise would probably stop reading right about now. :)

i got my first lit essay back today. thankfully, the english are a very sympathetic lot and have decided that the first year of literature doesn't count towards my final degree grade.. hence, there's no GRADE for my first essay. thank God, really. haha. i personally think it was the worst piece of crap i've ever written in my entire life, not to mention the fact that i overshot the word limit by about a thousand words. :P surprisingly, my tutor still went, "oh, why didn't you number your pages or give the word count?", even though the fact that i had written too much was blatantly obvious. he's such a nice guy. haha. he gives really in-depth comments about the essay, like those ms j used to give at the end of the essay, so that's extremely helpful. thank God for great teachers. :) and even though my essay was clearly uninspired, over-analytical and extremely unselective, at least i got some good advice! haha. i hate political poets. perhaps it's the fact that i can't remember anything about the political history of anywhere except singapore. haha. close-minded education, much?

next assignment's shakespearean plays. hoping for the best. :)

my other assignment for this week comes from my linguistics department [the dual-department thing is driving me nuts, btw.] and you're really going to love this.

my assignment is to LOOK UP A WHOLE LIST OF WORDS on the OED [Oxford English Dictionary], and to classify them into being of French, Latin, French or Latin, Nordic or Other origins.

yes, French origin, Latin origin, and French or Latin origin are DIFFERENT categories.

and get this, the list of words must be contextually accurate. they give us a passage where all the words are found, and we have to identify the cultural and syntactical context in which they are used in order to correctly determined the use of the words and their meanings. and there are about a hundred and fifty words.

a HUNDRED AND FIFTY CONTEXTUALLY ACCURATE WORDS THAT I HAVE TO CLASSIFY INTO FRENCH, LATIN, FRENCH OR LATIN, NORDIC or OTHER ORIGINS.

i'll be looking at the bloody dictionary all weekend.

oh, my poor accursed eyes.

ciao.

photo update!

just thought you guys might want to see how nights in Flat 6, Block J of James College are spent. EVERY NIGHT.

this is meg. she's the sweetest, most understanding human being alive, and the only one who can tolerate us screaming like madmen in the middle of the morning.

this is andrew.

and this is what happens when andrew is given control of the camera.

this is what happens when i'm trying to study in the kitchen. :P not that i'm complaining, actually.

this is matt, looking at.. actually, what the hell is he looking at?

that's andrew, seb and sook, playing dai dee. [as previously stated, that is ALL we do.] and the aforementioned competitiveness? didn't believe me? observe the fact that andrew is SCREAMING.

that's meg, and michael. the quieter ones in our flat. :)

that's my first encounter with a tree with ORANGE LEAVES.

that's matt, saying "good game." [this is getting a bit tedious. -sheepish smile-]

the one on the far left is giulia.

okay, i'm too tired to elaborate.

ciao.

just something odd that happened today.

jo: [on the phone with geof] hmmm.. yeah, YES, you must come and visit me. YAY! okay, okay bye.
matt: who was that?
jo: oh, that was my friend geoffrey. he's in london. is it my go? [plays her ace of diamonds.]
matt: you have a friend called geoffrey? [sounds extremely taken aback]
jo: uhh. yes.
matt: is he singaporean, then?
jo: haha.. of course. yes.
matt: [looking extremely perplexed] you have a singaporean friend named geoffrey?
jo: yeeeess. his name is geoffrey. why do you sound so surprised?
matt: it's just that... geoffrey sounds like such an english name.
charlotte: well, her name's joanne!
matt: well, but yeah, joanne i can accept, but GEOFFREY?
jo: [laughing uncontrollably] yeahhhh. most of us have english names, you know.
seb: so wait, your friend's coming to visit you?
jo: yep, why?
seb: does ernest know geoffrey?
jo: yeah!
matt: [interrupting] what? you have a friend called geoffrey AND a friend called ernest?!
seb: ernest is her boyfriend.
matt: so is he singaporean?
jo: yes, of course he is!
matt: oh my god. a singaporean called ernest. i don't even think i know anyone ENGLISH called ernest.

haha. my flatmates crack me up. :)

life, love, and jay chou.

it's sad how life seems to degenerate over the weekend. there's no more school, no more rush [except for that one bloody essay that you seem to take forever to finish], there's nothing really much to do except bum around, wonder what you'd do for the day and go shopping.

oh btw, speaking of shopping, I HAVE MY BOOTS! they're brilliant, i tell you, absolutely brilliant. they come all the way to below the knees, they're brown, suede, and have heels about two inches high. amazing, amazing shoes.

okay, bimbo moment over.

so for the past few days, i've been valiantly trying to finish my expiring food, and as a result, have been eating nonstop. and not to mention the fact that the cold REALLY makes people feel like snacking. another thing that the cold makes a person is lonely. and it's not really a loneliness bred of being alone, because i'm surrounded by very nice, extremely friendly people who really try to include you in every way possible. it's more of a loneliness that's very intrinsic.. like a feeling of bereavement, a LACK.

i'm not extremely articulate for an english student, am i? :(

there are times when i really miss ernest, and most of the time it's during the nights where i'm sitting at my computer and listening to jay chou and wondering what time i'm going to sleep.

**SPOILER: cheesiness alert. please avoid reading if easily nauseated.**

i miss the way he used to sing me to sleep over the phone at night, and the way he used to make stupid comments just to annoy me. [although he still does that.] i miss the hugs and the way we held hands under the dinner table. i miss the way he used to insult me and then apologise fervently everytime i threw a fit about it. there are so many things that i miss about nest that i can't put into words, and it's difficult when he's so far away.

but i just want to tell him that i think about him all the time. :) and that no matter how worried he may be, no one will ever replace him.

OKAY. enough. i'm so corny.

yay! i finally located geof! come visit me, you pig!

ciao.

i looooove my mother.

beef rendang. best meal i've had since i've gotten here.. and i can even say I MADE IT. [sort of.]

i love my mother. :) bless her sweet little heart.

ciao.

singlish.

a quick blog update before i go to bed, again at two fifty five am. :(

somehow i haven't quite gotten used to speaking fully proper and syntactically accurate english yet. writing is, of course, fine, but when i speak, somehow i still manage to inject singaporean references/phrases into the middle of my sentences that someway or another muddles everyone i try to speak to.

one example.. just today i was talking to one of my friends from hongkong, and i went, "ohh, tomorrow i confirm late one." the friend went, "huh? what are you on about?" and i just stared back blankly, for the love of myself unable to see what was wrong with what i had said until several seconds later.

another example. earlier on today i was rushing for my history of english lecture, and i bumped headfirst into this abominably tall british guy. i looked up, and well, because i was frazzled from running from one place to another, and because the air was so cold it apparently froze my brain, i went, "pai seh."

PAI-frigging-SEH.

the guy, obviously perplexed, frowned down at me and said [naturally], "pardon?"

i just gave him a sheepish smile and rushed off again.

singlish is really incomprehensible to anyone else other than singaporeans.

ciao.

well, hello there!

after my brief respite from blogging i am happy to say that i have made an unfortunate return! BUAHA! all of you are now doomed to endure my pathetic ramblings about my hapless and so very sad life. :)

in the past three days, i have somehow managed to fall extremely ill, and despite all the medication i've been pumping into my body, the latter evidently refuses to cooperate and allow me to have a decent first week of academic school work. :( as a result, i am now, for the third day in a row, completely mute, save for a few croaks and some halfway decent squeaks here and there.

that's actually the second reason why i hate the weather here so much. the dry air coupled with the cold wind and the occasional rain doesn't exactly promote healthy living and a fully functional respiratory system. the first, of course, would be that the cold weather gives one the munchies. and then i eat, and eat, and eat, and eventually return home fifteen kg heavier. gad. i swear, these three years will be my downfall.

anyway, back to the awkward narration of my uneventful life. so basically, i wake up every morning, spend ten minutes coughing my bloody lungs out, then stumble to the bathroom and wash up, only to realise, hey, i've only got thirty minutes to be at blahblahblah place. [mind you, this happens EVERY MORNING.] so i rush like crazy through my shower, grab all my stuff, run out of the flat with only a light jacket and my hair still wet, and proceed to basically get myself sick all over again.

it's a vicious cycle, i tell you, a vicious cycle.

i wish i could say i have the strength of will to drag myself out of bed earlier, but well.. i don't. so what would be the point in lying about it? :P in any case, sometimes i sleep so late i'm amazed i can drag myself out of bed at ALL. this has to change once lesson proper begins.. which is, well, tomorrow at ten fifteen a.m.. and it's well, one nineteen a.m.. so this isn't exactly a stellar beginning to my newfound resolution.

why do i sleep so late, you ask? well, it's fundamentally because of one, stupid, retarded, absolutely addictive card game, famous in singapore for bringing down all bengs and lians, secondary schoolboys and schoolgirls, university students and yuppies alike...

dai dee.

yep, you heard me right, dai dee. big two. the evil card game we used to play outside the classrooms while waiting for our chinese common test to start [because face it, we were gonna flunk it anyway.] basically, after a couple of hong kong, malaysians and singaporean friends taught it to my flatmates.. there was NO STOPPING THEM!

every night. every single night, we're up playing dai dee, competing to see who wins the most times, until unearthly hours of the morning. UNEARTHLY, i tell you. it's great fun, really, seeing everyone swear at each other [not that i necessarily participate, of course] at the rubbish deck they've been dealt, watching people [especially guys, omg, they're so damned competitive] drive each other nuts with taunting and screaming. we basically wake all the neighbours everytime someone plays the 2 of spades.

it's crazy, but mannn. it's fun.

officially siong school starts TOMORROW. at ten fifteen. soooo. goodnight!

ciao.

i would blog more.. but...

my laptop is making funny rumbling noises and becomes hot to the touch after like half an hour.. so i'm thinking it may blow up and the less time i spend on it, the better.

ciao.

it's not so bad.

today was the official start of freshers week in york, which is pretty much matriculation week cum orientation week where in the day, everyone rushes around trying to get all their admin stuff done, and at night, everyone goes crazy and drinks until they pass out. haha. somehow all the overseas students seemed to have bonded together after last weeks surprisingly un-happening events, and some of us have decided to boycott the evening activities and spend time doing less inane things in less crowded places.

thank God.

so, considering the mad rush of the british invasion of the past day, some of us, i.e ME, have been feeling a little bit overwhelmed. suddenly a school that was practically a ghost town: beautiful, but quiet.. has turned into this massive drunken orgy-like place where every night there's something going on in all the pubs and drinking games being held in every kitchen.

it's enough to scare me, a sweet but homely little girl [cheeky grin] who thinks that standing around in a crowded hall with blasting music, smiling stupidly at the person across from you, unable to hold a conversation and consistently being shoved in the back by jostling crowds, is extremely imbecilic, half to death.

i do apologise if that convoluted sentence confused you.

anyway, i am, unsurprisingly if you know me, rather antagonistic towards the turn that events have taken. haha. i always imagined the start of school to be.. you know, the start of SCHOOL. when people settled down to do their pre-course reading [which of course, any sane individual would leave to the last minute] and you know.. STUDIED.

instead, the start of school has, well, brought to york a slightly insane aura that brings to mind.. pardon my crudeness, but.. well, mating season. when all the animals go into this hazy fever and start rutting like crazy without any thought of the consequences. utter and complete stupidity.

haha. i'm such a wet blanket, aren't i?

i guess i'm just one of those stay-at-home kind of girls who occasionally go partying under extreme duress and only if i'm surrounded by good friends. haha. in england, that renders me entirely a snooze, who doesn't know how to have fun.

and guess what?

i don't care! :P

i wonder if being in ac has made me a more confident, or at least, a more resolute individual. i'm glad my parents didn't send me overseas for foundation year. knowing my lack of discernment two years ago, i would probably have ended up drunk and dead somewhere if i were thrust into this environment.

anyways, i'm glad.

i gotta call geof and see if he's going through the same phenomenon.. it's really quite a curious thing. :)

ciao!

and life continues. unfortunately.

i need school to start SOON. like really soon. otherwise i might just kill myself out of sheer desperation and boredom.

anyway, life in york isn't too bad at the moment. getting settled down into things a little. went to sainsbury's today and got like thirty-five pounds worth of groceries, which is what? a hundred dollars? my mom spends that much on groceries for the ENTIRE family of nine people.

NINE. to ONE. the exchange rate is killing me and all my financial sensibilities.

talked to judith on skype [wonderful, wonderful skype] today for over an hour. it was great to hear her voice again, and not through stupid voice clips that the crazy girl LOVES to send, but through an actual conversation. even though more than half of it was spent listening to her sing karaoke [bad karaoke, might i add] through the speakers. haha. my best friend is so bloody adorable. i miss her.

i'm gonna go to church tomorrow at heslington church, which is just east of heslington hall. haven't been there before, but i really need to find a good worship environment. i hope people there are friendly. :) it'd be a pretty traditional service, i would think. it's like an ecumenical partnership between the church of england and the methodist church.. oh well, we'll see tomorrow.

i received a really exciting e-mail two days ago, and only ju, nest and bert [because, well, the bloke was the only one online when i got it and i needed to scream, and of course, because he's such an utter darling] know what the contents of this e-mail is.

it's a secret, so you don't get to know. hee hee.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. so bloody exciting.

i have decided that i want to join the TRAMPOLINING CLUB!

haha. don't laugh. it's mean.

ciao.

you know what i miss?

people say that when one goes overseas to study, the thing one misses most would be the food. home-cooked, amazing food. everything else, they say, one can find wherever they may be.

that is a total and complete lie, in all honesty.

you know what i miss?

i miss ernest.
i miss my family.
i miss my friends.

and you know what i really, really miss to death?

the acjc choir.

and the sun.

it's one in the morning and i gotta get up at seven so..
ciao.

i've moved in!!!

YES! i finally have internet access from my room! so.. a quick photo update.

mommy and i outside campus central.

my bed in my new room! complete with travy, meep and blue bolster.

view from the goodricke computer lab. AMAZING.
somewhere in campus. look at the duck faeces in the corner. they poo EVERYWHERE.

fire station in york city centre.

my study table.

i swear, moving to my new room was the ultimate, ultimate, ULTIMATE blessing. i love it. I LOVE MY NEW ROOM. [of course, its nowhere as great as my room back home in singapore, but compared to the prison cell i was in before? it's a GODSEND.] i now have skype and msn and yahoo and EVERYTHING. AHHHH this rocks.

ciao.

salvation!

i have found it! the solution to all this dreariness, gloom and general feeling of sorrow that hangs over me in this place!

there is something hallowed in its name.. something so elusive, found only because mindy, who is [i never thought i would EVER say this] possibly the most brilliant girl i have ever known, encouraged me to get off my ass and do something. so i went into town in an attempt to alleviate my pathetically low spirits, and what do i find?

the third [aside from calls from my dearest ernest and my QT] most emotionally uplifting thing i have encountered since i've came to this place:

the romantic fiction section of borders.

i have been saved. :)

york.

hello, my dearests!

a little update from york:

1) york is as pretty as it was in july.
2) the weather's fairly nice but starting to get a tad bit colder.
3) i moved into the college yesterday.
4) i have to move again tomorrow.
5) my accompanying baggage has grown from one suitcase to two because my father bought an entire restaurant full of crockery, cutlery and food for me.
[as you can see, the combination of points 3, 4 and 5 does present to me a rather large conundrum.]
6) my parents left for manchester airport last night.
7) i made friends with two gigantic spiders who deigned to visit me in my bed last night. i named them daddy and mommy long legs, respectively.
8) my temporary room is the size of a closet.
9) all bathroom and toilet facilities are COMMUNAL and UNISEX.
10) i have, as of yet, no internet access from my room.
11) i only get my debit card in two weeks.
12) no singaporeans aside from yours truly have arrived at york, heretofore.
13) i have been vegetarian for almost a week now, and...
14) i am slowly sinking into depression.

haha.. don't get me wrong, york isn't all bad! people here are generally quite friendly, and well, the ducks outside my window seem amiable enough. one thing i really enjoy is the quietude.. you don't really have to rush anywhere, and there's really nothing much to do. although, right now, doing nothing is essentially what is driving me to near insanity.

the truth is, it's probably only this interim period that's leaving me feeling rather unsettled. the fact that i can't unpack, because i'm moving again. the fact that i can't get my internet access, because i'm moving again. the fact that i can't even STUDY, because school hasn't started. it's just all slowly building up into this crescendo of "WILL SOMEONE SAVE ME FROM THE INANITY OF THIS EXISTENCE!?!"

i really long for school to start; for some people from home to start arriving and for my internet to start kicking up so i can talk to the people at home a lot more often. talking to yourself all day is just SLIGHTLY, only SLIGHTLY, insanity inducing.

my only saving grace is ernest xue ren kai, angel of the highest order. he's been faithfully calling me whenever i express the slightest need for company, probably resulting in the heftiest phone bill anyone has seen since the dawn of time. he's been smsing me everytime i seem bored, and he's been comforting me everytime i feel sobs threatening.

he's honestly the best. the BEST.

i miss everyone sorely, and it's.. well, only 76 days till i come home!

pray for me, please?

ciao!