Events

AIESEC in NUS, Merdeka Nite, Signing Tuition grant + NTU 50th Anniv. Celebrations.

Sorry ar, juz list out what i'll blog abt, coz no time to do now and I'm afraid i'll forget :P

Badminton... Again...

I happened to walk past Hall 4's TV room one day and I saw something very interesting... There was a badminton match going on, men's doubles semi-finals to be more exact, and it was between an Indonesian pair and a US pair. I was soooo shocked lah... but then I saw that one of the US players was actually Indonesian lah... Tony Gunawan... haven't heard about him for some time. Apparently he's studying in US or something.

Anyway, I watch what remained of the match lah... and the US team won. It's surprising because US never got so far in a badminton competition before. I mean, who has heard of strong badminton players from US?

And if you were as shocked as me to see US get into the finals, imagine how I felt when they actually won! Siao! Won against Indon pair woh...Candra Wijaya and Sigit Budiarto. It was a 3 match game... 15-11, 10-15, 15-11. I just read the news not long ago. The other US player is Howard Bach...don't be fooled by his name, he's not caucasian; he was born in Vietnam, but lived most of his life in US.

Another interesting thing about this time's Badminton World Championships is that it was held in US. I bet most Americans have no idea what is badminton. But anyway, the International Badminton Federation (IBF) wanted the competition to be held in the US to "market" the sport. Good move I hope. I certainly would enjoy seeing more competitors from more countries competing in this sport. Hopefully they will stop the mainly China-Indon domination... haha... especially the women's games, almost no fail China win one...

<===And I suppose it was kinda inevitable that sport events in the US have their own distinctive US "touch" to it. Like these cheerleaders performing on the badminton court.




In case you didn't know, the IBF actually WANTS their female players to wear more "glamorous outfits" (= skimpier dressing?), as they think the traditional style is too old-fahioned. In fact, IBF's vice president, Datuk Punch Gunalan said "...We need to be in the fashion world. So we would like to see players wear more appealing clothes to the public......Let’s take Maria Sharapova. Look at her tank tops. It is pretty.”

What do you think? :)

I'm all for it! =P

Eric's parents came by on Saturday and he stayed out with them in their relative's house. Leaving me all alone. Haha... Anyway, I decided to go for some night jogging that day. Left my room around 12.20am. My destination was Anbu and Chen Hoay's place at Hall 15 (2~3km away?). Anbu suggested watching "American Pie". For those of you who don't know, it's a rather 'dirty' movie lah... By the time I finished watching the movie it was 3am, and since Anbu offered me to sleep over, I did loh... Guess I'll be going over to his place again sometime, coz I still haven't watch American Pie 2!

Blah... nothing to blog about lah...

***MY.POV.NTU*** (1)

So from today onwards I shall start "MY.POV.NTU". Don't get? Basically it's "My. Point Of View.NTU". I'll just ramble about stuff that come to mind concerning NTU and my take on it. You can expect n more entries to come, where n is definitely a number greater than 1.

********
MSA vs AMCISA

The above mentioned student organisations in NTU are voluntary organisations, meaning no points will be allocated for any leadership positions within the organisation.

MSA: Malaysia Students' Association-- actually, only Malaysian students who studied Form 6 (i.e. taken STPM exam) or A-levels join this organisation.
AMCISA: Association of Malaysia Chinese Independent School Alumni--open for ALL students who've taken UEC.
STPM: Sijil Tinggi Pelajaran Malaysia--high standard exam, treated almost equally with A-levels exam.
UEC: Unified Examination Certificate （统考）--exam taken by Chinese Independent School students around Malaysia. Should be of high standards too.

Now, based on info I got from Yi Cheng, there are actually non-Malaysians in AMCISA (like Indonesians/ Chinese), albeit in small numbers. Well, this shouldn't be very surprising lah, coz Malaysia also attracts a number of foreign students to it's shores. AMCISA exists in both NTU and NUS, but I'm not sure about MSA. Another thing is, AMCISA has a longer history compared to MSA...

So next you might wonder what these organisations actually do. Basically it is to form friendships between members and also to help those blur blur freshies who have just arrived in Singapore. They organise a few activities throughout the year... MSA has Merdeka Night etc. But as a whole, I think there isn't much interaction between members of MSA and AMCISA. Quite a sad thing...

But the one thing that is really frustrating in a sense is that comparing MSA and AMCISA freshies, AMSICA freshies are 2 years younger than MSA ones. Why? Because AMCISA freshies came to Singapore straight after their secondary school studies mah. So this happened one day: I got to chat with this 同乡from Batu Pahat who studied at 华仁中学, and he was only 18, whereas me 20. When I asked him if he knew a primary school friend of mine, 罗同顺, he said:"Oh, he's a senior". (-_-)"'

The Chinese Society in NTU is dominated by AMCISA people, but they are facing an influx of Chinese students. MSA people on the other hand, are still holding on to MENSA NTU. But MENSA is quite a slack club lah. The Chinese Society should be the other way around... haha...

Ok lah, that's about it. I'll see if I can add anything next time...

Badminton~~My Passion~~

I am generally lousy at sports, but for badminton I can say that I'm at least a bit better. I can still remember playing badminton with my dad when I was still in lower primary school. I started off a with lousy cheapo no-brand badminton racquet at first... Haha... Hopefully I can get a nice good one this year.

Anyway, I was the badminton "captain" for my block for the inter-block games because Jesmie was not free and she "pushed" the responsibility to me :P

Well, I'll skip the part where I got all "gan-chiong" etc. and messed up some stuff...

Basically, I barely had enough guys to play and the girls were just enough. Each block was supposed to play Men's Single (MS), Men's Double (MD), Girl's Single (GS), Girl's Double (GD) and Mixed Double.

Our first opponent was Orange Block. We were an equal 2-2 after we lost MS and GD. So it was up to me and Eric (MD) to fight it out. We won loh... but then I gotta apologize to Jun Hao coz I kept hitting the shuttlecock at him. Sorry sorry sorry!!!Not on purpose one!!!

Since Hall 5 only got 4 Blocks, we played in the finals afterwards. We were losing most of the matches and then it was our turn to play... Orange block sent their seniors... Eugene and Adrian. Me and Eric were a bit intimidated when they were winning leading 4-0 in the 21-points single match game. But we persisted... and won!! Something like 21-12...Yay! Haha... my first victory in a sports competition :P But it's possible that the seniors 放水 (fang4 shui3) lah...

Crazy bunch of people called AIESECers

Phew, finally found time to blog...

I attended AROC 2005 (AIESEC Recruitment and Orientation Camp) last weekend. The location was Dairy Farm (the name is a reminiscent of its past) somewhere near Bukit Timah. It was a so-so camp lah. Not very 凶 (xiong1), and only lasted 1+ days. Anyway, just wanted to write about some of the more interesting parts.

We (students from NTU and NUS... no SMU freshies coz they haven't started school yet...) were split into a few groups--all names of countries. I was in team Korea and so was Vi.

My AROC group... Group Korea!!!

Anyway, the first "game" was called "Mars and Venus". Each group had to split their members into 2 groups. One group ("Mars") was supposed to go out of the hall to look for senior guys to get their "preference" list, while the other group ("Venus") had to set up "matchmaking agencies" booths in the hall and try to attract the senior girls to sign up with us. I was with the latter group. Had my first experience of marketing. It was quite tough! Haha... coz you know lah, they won't let us have an easy job one... The objective of the game basically was to show us how AIESEC functions as both "Mars" and "Venus"; by "matchmaking" AIESECers who wish to go on an exchange or get a traineeship overseas.

Next up was some talks about departments within AIESEC etc...

The climax of the whole camp undeniably was AROC night 2005. At least one guy from each group had to dress up as a girl for a pageant!!! I nearly kena somemore!!! Jialat!!! Thankfully got Mustafa (from Turkey) in my group who didn't mind doing it... Most groups made artificial boobs from blown up balloons. But in the end, the girl guy from group Estonia won. Why? Because he was soooo good at it!! He had the hourglass shape, hairless body and most importantly, the attitude (read: bitchyness, "te2", 骚 etc.)

Next up was initiation... it was not dirty, not gross, not wet, not obscene. I had wondered the whole day how it would be like. Won't say much else about it, lest someone who'll join AROC Singapore next time is reading this. Hehe... =P

After the whole thing, it was sculling. Almost the same as the sculling game that I played when I attended MYC organised by AIESEC UPM, except that instead of water+vinegar etc we had beer instead (which was quite nice!). But sadly my group lost in the first round, so tiada peluang to drink more cups. Haha... Many of us had supper (instant noodles) afterwards and we also danced a lot. Haha, the dance steps were identical to AIESEC UPM's one... Danced to the "Numa Numa Yey" song, "Shimauta" etc.

So that's it loh...

Uni Life Not As Expected

well, i was gonna write about the above topic (+ Malaysian Haze, Merdeka Night and other ramblings), but I have time constraints so I'm unable to blog about it as of now. And this is also what i did not expect out of uni life.

Haze, haze, haze... always an issue almost every year in Malaysia (and Singapore)... I still remember the first time I really felt the impact of it. I was in standard 6 (it was the year 1997) and from my classroom on the second floor the basketball court (<50m away) was all hazy. I remember the days I had to wear masks to school. There hasn't been a haze worst than that ever since, but nevertheless the problem keeps reemerging year after year. When will it stop?

The Malaysian Student's Association (MSA) of NTU is organising a "Merdeka Night" on the 27th of this month. Of course I know Hari Kebangsaan is on the 31st, but no holiday in Singapore mah... so they had to make it on a weekend loh. Anyway, the interesting part about this event is that there is a theme--we have to wear our secondary school uniforms!! Oh dear!! I don't have loh... but I'm trying to find something similar at least...

Continue later...

Nothing much...

Woke up later than I wanted to. I went to Tampines to meet up with Jeffrey and we had lunch at Subway. Went to TJC after that to get my A-level certificate (finally). Met up with some of the teachers I know... Mrs. Lim (maths), Mr. Ng (maths) and Mr. Peck(GP)... But sadly, no sign of dear old Mrs. Kitty Tan (class tutor). Oh well...

Followed Jeffrey to Beach Road at Lavender after that as he needed to buy army stuff. Went back to NTU after that. Went online and washed clothes before meeting up with Lita to go to the NTU Buddhist Society (NTUBS) welcome tea session. She left early though, coz got some Indon meeting. Followed Ke Yeng to meet some MSA (Malaysia Students Association) people. He was going to be interviewed for the main comm position in MSA. Finally went for supper at "extension".

Rather busy day

Woke up fairly early, even though I have no classes until 10.30am, coz I had yet to print the notes for the Effective Communication course. I printed the notes at Nanyang Business School (NBS). Only NBS students are entitled to use the computers and printers there. So how do I manage to print my notes there? Using Eric's account loh... hahaha... Nice place to print notes coz there aren't many people there, as compared to the Lee Kong Chian Library, where I have to wait to get to use the computer and later queue up at the printing room to print my notes.

First class of Eff. Comm... rather interesting module I would say. Opens my mind to certain stuff. And one thing about this module is that there is a lot of group work. As usual, there is Continual Assessment (CA), which will count towards the final grading for this subject for this semester (sem).

###Digress (sudden thoughts)###
I went for my AIESEC interview yesterday. Didn't think I did very well, but I keep my fingers crossed. Different outcomes from what I expect will just make me alter my plans accordingly. Nothing much lost.

I'm wondering why there isn't any welcome tea for the German Society... Hm... I was thinking of getting in the main committee.

And tonight (Friday), I'll be attending the NTU Buddhist Society welcome tea at Nanyang House. I'll probably just join as a member first. As for MENSA NTU, might run for sub comm... haha... but the probability isn't high. There'll be a (non-compulsary) IQ test on 13 August I think, and I'm quite interested to take it...
###End Digress###

After lunch, there were 3 lectures side by side. Maths, Aero and Material. The vectors that were taught in Maths were more like revision to me. Mr. Shaker continued on the history of flight for the Aero lecture. By the time it was the Material Science lecture, I was rather sleepy and had almost no idea what the hell the lecturer was saying. Gotta read my textbooks when I have the time.

After a brief hiatus... well, a 3 hour hiatus, it was time to do my duty. I sent smses to inform those "Blue Block" (Block 30) people who signed up for the inter-block "Boogle" competition to go to the reading room, which was the venue of the competition. Lazy to explain what Boogle is... maybe I'll add it in here next time or something. Anyhow, it was the first time I played it. In the end, my block got 2nd place. So no medal :'( oh well...

As the competition ended around 10.45pm, I didn't join my OG (orientation group) for supper. But I decided to do something after all... night jogging. I suppose it's a sort of NTU culture. Haha... Got KV to join me. Big mistake.... haha... not really lah. He pushed me to jog/run the whole journey round NTU, which is around 5~6km. And as I actually ran nearly 2 rounds, that amounts to about 10km lah. Jialat... oh well, at least I'm stretching my limits.

Jogging is a good way of destressing man. I feel much better now :)

3rd week in NTU liao...

Apparently it is already my 3rd week in NTU, and I've yet to write anything much.

I'll be going for my AIESEC interview later at 7pm. It's one of the few clubs/societies that I'm joining. Some clubs I'm joining as a simple member, like "Billiards and Snooker Club" and NTU Buddhist Society. For others I'm aiming for a place in their sub-committee or main committee, like the German society and MENSA. I'm in the running for "(hostel) block committee" too... 20 points if I get it. On average, need to get between 80~100 points to get the hostel of your liking for next year.

Went for a subject exemption talk 2 days ago. I've been given the privilege of dropping 3 of my subjects, namely Maths I (this semester), Physics II and Chemistry (next sem). I'm sure of dropping Physics II and Chemistry (total of 7 AU!!), but I dunno about Maths I... Seems like there's quite a lot of stuff I've forgotten and some new stuff. But if I manage by (i.e. score well in exam), I can increase my CGPA rite? Have to answer by today... Wanted to take up German this sem but its exam clashes with my Physics I, so I'm delaying it to next sem. I took up an additional module still however--Effective Communication (2AU). So this sem I have 18 AU liao. Just nice :P