Thanksgiving week

Before the main part of my post, let me just share some joy with everbardee...

From an email that the head of our math dept sent out today:
"Because we have just started on the max-min theory in lectures, we decided to postpone all Section 4.2 homework problems until Assignment 9... For now, the announcement is Assignment 8 now has 11 problems, all the problems assigned from Sections 2.6 and 4.1."

I've completed section 2.6. Which means instead of having done 1/3 of the hw (which is due thu) i've done half! whoo hoo! =) It suddenly seems a lot more doable. Thank u God!! :D

Anyway, last week was thanksgiving week and we had the whole week off. Took the time to rest, relax, get some hw done... in the process of all of it I suddenly realized to my horror that we only have 2 MORE WEEKS of school and then it's finals week!! And I have math finals AND an IHUM paper due on Monday of finals week (11 Dec). XP Nvm nothing is impossible thru Christ who strengthens me! :)

Thanksgiving was on thursday; I went with Ai Lin, Dewen, Andrew (Hongkee Singaporean friend) and a guy from my dorm called Peter to Cynthia's place for thanksgiving dinner (Cynthia's the american girl I met on the trip to Redding who's moving to Singapore for work at the end of this week... have I mentioned this before? I forget). It was a really good meal and really nice company. Other stuff that I did during the week included renting DVDs (Cars and Thank You For Smoking) and watching them at Ai Lin's place together with De Wen and Andrew, and a trip up to San Francisco on wed. Check out a few of the photos I took at San Fran:

picture of part of downtown san fran

me at the northern coast of San Fran with Alcatraz (famous high-security prison on an island) in the background

a sign prohibiting ppl from taking these really expensive and high quality crabs should they show up on the pier (with san fran in the background)

a guy BALANCING ROCKS (those rocks aren't glued together. AMAZING STUFF!!)

and the Golden Gate bridge in rather foggy weather.


Throughout last week it started getting much colder than usual. Now I usually wear a t-shirt under another t-shirt or a polo shirt or something like that, so I'm effectively wearing 3 layers with my jacket. But it's comparitively warm here; other parts of the USA have been snowing for a while already. We're really in autumn now... getting colder and leaves are turning red and brown and falling. :) Gotta go do some hw now, I'll leave u guys with some photos of the Stanford campus I took last week. Cheers! =)


Taken from just outside De Wen's dorm:

And from across the road from my dorm, looking towards the central part of campus (my dorm's just to the right of the photo)

Driving Test 2

I PASSED!!! Praise God!! NO errors. And the tester was much nicer this time. Case-in-point: Part of the test was to pull over and then reverse. As I was reversing she was looking at this squirrel climbing a tree and laughing. :P

Had a super busy week last week. Didn't get a lot of work done in Redding so had to work pretty hard, had a math midterm on thu and an IHUM paper due friday. I started pretty late on the paper - even on wed when I went to see my TF (Teaching Fellow - the 'teacher' who leads my IHUM discussion section) I didn't have a clear idea of how to plan out my essay. But I finished eventually and I think it was even clearer and more succinct than my first paper a few weeks ago, although i'll only know for sure when I get my paper back. Which won't be for a couple of weeks I think. Math midterm went well too. Scored 88 this time, which according to the statistics is safely within the A-/A range of 81-90. =)

So it's been a challenging week but it went well and I'm glad it's over. This week is thanksgiving break so I'm gonna try to do some work, get some sleep and have some fun. :)

Only 4 weeks left till I return home! Incredibly fast... And yet Lisa said just now that she feels like we (I and De Wen and one or two others) have been here forever. Which is good. Cos it means we fit in and we're into the flow of things and stuff. Yay. :D

Driving Test

Had my driving test yesterday. And guess what? I didn't make it. :P Was turning right on red (which is legal here as long as you give way) and was checking for oncoming traffic from my left but failed to check for cars turning left from directly in front of me, so I came kinda close to hitting a car and the tester had to tell me to stop. Sigh.

Well, in spite of that I was feeling relatively ok abt it. Guess my ego was a bit bruised but I'll just wait patiently for the re-test (which is in 2 weeks). Meanwhile Lisa (the friend who's driven me to the DMV twice) said I can borrow her car to practice. She was really encouraging, such a blessing to have her arnd. Prob will try practising tmr afternoon since i'm free, provided she doesn't need to use her car.

Had an incredible weekend. Was at a birthday dinner on Saturday night and, without going into too much detail (cos not everyone will get what I'm talking abt) a bunch of us ended up spending over 2 hrs praying and prophesying and moving in the Spirit. And the prophecies and stuff were for me. God spoke so much that night, it was amazing. And very undeserved I'm sure, which just goes to show His incredible grace. Want more details? drop me an email. *grinz*

Going to this church in Redding this weekend. It's a 4 hr drive north from here. Going with the same bunch of friends that were there praying and prophesying, plus some others. It's amazing how God's led me to this really tight-knit group of spirit-filled Christians here, all of whom are Singaporean! Except one. But she's moving to Singapore in a month. Haha. Anyway it's a church with a really open heaven over it, apparently God is really pouring out His spirit in that place. Many testimonies of healings and other miracles. I'm quite eager to see what will happen. =)

Gonna grab a cookie from the fridge and just relax for a while. Have class in 40 mins. God bless!

Super busy weekend

Had an incredible weekend. See the title. It was busy but fantastic. And a little bit of a stretch but not too bad.

So my weekend started Friday morning. That's right. I skipped a math class. Which wasn't too bad cos I managed to understand whatever they covered by reading the textbook later, thank God. :) Friday morning I went with the mendicants to San Jose airport to catch a flight to Denver, Colorado. We were there to sing at an alumni gathering. So we arrived arnd 2pm Denver time, and there was a snowfall like one or two nights before so the landscape was incredible. The area is really flat and then there's loads of mountains so it's really pretty. Took a lot of photos but this one kinda sums it all up:

That's a picture of Denver (it's the name of the city) as we were driving from the airport. Beautiful.

So we stayed at the hotel where the alumni gathering was being held. It was REALLY nice.

Went for lunch (all our meals were paid for), ate at this 60's-style burger joint that served fantastic burgers and REALLY gd miilkshakes (my strawberry banana milkshake had real banana in it and they even gave the remaining milkshake tt couldn't fit in the glass in the metal can tt u use to shake the milkshake). In the evening we went to the reception where we mingled with the alumni in between singing songs. Had a 2 hr break after that while the alumni were listening to a couple of speakers, then went back to do the same as had dessert and left. Some of the guys went out for a movie after that; I went with Lance (the guy sitting on the bed in the picture above) to grab a bite and a drink. Very stupidly left my debit card at the restaurant so I cancelled it and ordered a new one when I got back. Woke up at 6am the next day to take a flight back. Fantastic scenery from the plane.



Was so tired when I got back so I took a 3.5 hr nap. :P

Had a performance at the West Coast A Cappella showcase in Berkeley that Sat evening. Went pretty well, I quite enjoyed the concert. The next morning I woke up early to go to San Fran with Chris. Met up with Yinshan (fellow MAS scholar and Berkeley student) there too. We went to Christian City Church San Fran together (www.c3sf.com). It was a fantastic service and we stayed arnd during lunch to talk to some of the staff and pastors. The journey to and fro took almost 2 hrs each way; hopefully I can get a ride from somebody if I decide to go there regularly. After getting back the mendicants had a bbq together with counterpoint, the only female a cappella group on campus. Was a pretty good time but it was really cold; last night was the first night I could consistently see my breath condense.

So yeah, was really tired last night. Managed to do some hw though. I'm now at an outdoor cafe drinking a juice smoothie and typing this. =) Was going to go into the library but decided it's too nice a day to spend indoors.

Tmr I'm leading IHUM section discussion together with another guy. We're meeting tonight to discuss. I'm praying it'll go well... we're leading the discussion of one of the short stories in James Joyce's "Dubliners", a collection of short stories portraying life in Dublin. Cheem. Haha.

Oh btw, daylight savings time has ended so for those of you who've been wondering what time it is over here while you're doing whatever, the time difference is now 16 hrs instead of 15hrs previously. So like 5pm in Singapore is like my 1am on the same day.

Wondering what this new week will bring. We'll see. No more mendicants performances next weekend but our fall concert is coming up so we'll prob still be busy, though not as busy as before. I think. :D

Santa Barbara

Hey all! Wanted to update my blog on Sunday but was too tired. Went down to Santa Barbara (about 4.5 - 5 hrs drive down south, near L.A.) to sing for an ex-mendicant's wedding. It was a REALLY nice wedding reception. Think it must've been real expensive. Anyway Santa Barbara was beautiful. Check out the few photos below:


This is a picture taken from the beach which was walking distance from our motel (our motel's straight up the small road at the center of the pic). The beach was fantastic, much warmer than Santa Cruz, very soft sand, awesome weather. So Santa Barbara is a small beach-front city, and on the other side of the city are mountains (which you can see in the pic). Breathtaking scenery.



Another picture of the beach. Like I said, awesome weather. =)

This is a view of the downtown. Much nicer and more happening than the Palo Alto downtown, there's a lot more things happening there, and it's really very pleasant. Went there for dinner just before going to the wedding.

We rented a 15-seater van and drove down on Saturday, drove back up on Sunday. And of course, being myself, I couldn't help not taking a photo of the van. *grinz* So here it is...


Spent Saturday night at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) where we met up with a friend of one of the guys in the group, and bumped into a somewhat drunk friend of another guy in the group (the latter was a lot more amusing than the former - no offense Greg... haha...). Sunday morning I went with one of the guys (Solomon, a Korean kid from nearby Stanford whose Dad's a pastor) to a church nearby called Harvest Christian Fellowship. Enjoyed the service, thot it was pretty gd though again a lot of the ppl were a little non-participative. Drove back to Stanford in the afternoon, met with heavy traffic so the journey took 6.5 hrs. XP Took the time to learn some music in the van. haha. So anyway u can see why I was tired on Sun. :)

Flying to Denver tomorrow with the mendicants to sing at an alumni function. I think we get to stay at the hotel where the banquet for the alumni is being held. :) Just found out from one of the guys that it snowed in Denver a day or two ago. So I think it's gonna be cold. Will be back on Saturday, going to Berkeley to sing at the west coast a cappella showcase on Sat night. So it's a pretty packed weekend.

Gtg for class now... my IHUM discussion section is from 6 - 7:30pm. Thank God it's the last class of the day. haha. Kinda tired now, stayed up late last night doing math problems and my music take-home midterm. Had a headache just now but it's a lot better now, thank God! Will try to post pics of Denver when I come back. Till next time! :)

Driving Test

Just got back from brunch after my supposed driving test. I say 'supposed' cos I didn't actually take it. I was supposed to, and Lisa (a Singaporean graduate student here) very generously volunteered to take me. So she picked me up this morning and we got there on time, only to realise that she didn't have her updated insurance and registration with her, which we needed for the test. We rushed back to her place to get it and came back but they said I needed another appointment on another day cos they were quite backlogged and couldn't slot me in. So i'm doing my driving test on Nov 6th. =)

Lisa apologised a few times but it was totally my responsibility to check and ensure that we had all the documents... which I rather unwisely didn't. So even though she took it upon herself to remember it's really no fault of hers.

Oh well, no big loss, I can still drive with my S'pore license. I'll just be patient and wait. =)

So we went to a really nice place for breakfast (at the time we went it was more like brunch) in Menlo Park, a city just north of Palo Alto. It's a very American restaurant, nice country-ish decor. Had a pancake, and skillet (fried toppings and cheese on top of rosti-style potato) and pretty nice coffee. The food was good, and so was the company, so despite the hiccup with the driving test I had a really enjoyable morning, thank God for that. :)

Tmr, the Mendicants are off to Santa Barbara! Singing for an ex-member's wedding there (yes another one). It's roughly 4-5 hrs of driving away, kinda like from S'pore to KL. But with bigger roads. haha. I'll try to update my blog while I'm there, if not i'll update when i'm back. God bless!!

More Photos

Today was De Wen's birthday, and so a whole gang of Singaporeans surprised (more like shocked) him at his dorm at 11+pm last night with a cake. Here's a picture of him during the initial 10 seconds of his shock:

At one point after we were done with the cake, we grabbed him and threw him into the shower. =) No pictures of that yet unfortunately, it's in a friend's camera.

Just got back abt 30 mins ago from San Francisco, went there to meet some other MAS scholars and MAS staff who were in town for dinner. Had dinner in a REALLY nice restaurant... check out the beautiful view of the city that we had:


Not much time to update, gotta study for a math midterm. Will leave u with a few photos that my friend Daniel took of campus:
That's the road leading to the main part of school. I cycle down this road every morning. =) Most of my classes are in a 10-11 o'clock direction in this photo (i.e. behind the trees, as the crow flies).

A view of the oval (on the right side of the picture), which is kinda like a front lawn of the school. Photo taken from the main quad.

The main quad, a rectangular area that forms a central focal point of the school, is on the right (the road in this photo is the same road in the previous photo but now the camera is on the pavement next to the oval grass). The bus that u see is a marguerite bus, a free shuttle service that Stanford runs. I don't take it much, except when going to the caltrain like tonight when I had to go to San Fran.