Exams are over.. its the vacation period now. Their end of sem break is very short, from 21 Dec until 3 Jan, which is less than 2 weeks. However, their summer vacation is nearly 4 months long.

I took a 3 day trip to Toronto a few days ago. Its cold there, below zero degrees almost all the time. I visited a part of the university of Toronto. Its buildings are spread out in the city, and the total area of the uni is very big, probably bigger than NTU. One of the libraries (I forgot the name) is HUGE, and its 14-storeys high. Its design is very unique also. A Uni of T friend said that it resembles a peacock. I think it looks more like a sphinx though, LOL.

I also tried ice skating in an open rink. Hah, I thought it would be very easy for me, since people always seem to skate effortlessly, and I'm confident of my balance. At first, it went pretty OK for me. Imitating other ppl's actions, I still managed to move at a reasonable pace, as opposed to some who can barely move at all. However, it find it rather exhausting, and my legs tend to open up. The skates are a size too big, I think, so the blades always have a tendency to slip outwards. After some time, a tractor-like vehicle came out to smoothen the ice, since skating will cut furrows in the ice, which makes it more difficult to skate on. I thought I would be able to skate like a pro after that. Man, how wrong I was. I stepped onto the ice, and due to it being much smoother than before, my feet slipped to the front, and I fell on my backside. The people outside the rink laughed so loudly that I can hear them through my winter cap. Doh, how embarrasing. Later, I tried to imitate how to stop. The skaters do this by turning 90 degrees very quickly, so the blades cut into the ice. Thus they are able to stop even when skating at high speed. Guess what happened. I can turn 90 degrees easily, but i can't stop my rotation. So I spun a few rounds, my arms flailing wildly, before falling down. Doh.. I wish there was someone there to teach me.

I stayed in a hostel during my time there. The thing I don't like is having to share a small room, with 4 other people. However, there is a lounge where people read, play games or chat, so I managed to meet other people there. A number of them are staying there from a few months to a year to study english. There's a Yank, working as a chef, who related many interesting experiences. According to him, while he was working in France, he found that the French peed on the sidewalks! OMG!! Not just males, but females also; they pee everywhere. He was in Lyon, but he says it happens in Paris also. Even his french friend did that while walking with him one day. He even took photos of the French peeing, and purposely enabled the flash to embarrass them, LOL.

I'll be going to Ottawa and Montreal with a group of malaysians and PRC students tomorrow. Unlike me, they are full-time, and not exchange students here. We'll probably go skiing, which is great, since I'll be able to show them how I can ski like a pro on the first try, LOL. Since I'm only returning around 29 Dec, this might be my last post in canada.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays everyone!!!

Went through a few blogs linked to Junnie's blog yesterday (Wei, Junnie, when are you going to update it??). Wow, I'm very impressed by some of them, especially Jingying's. They have many features, and look great while my blog looks so drab and plain. Hah, must be blogspot's fault, for not providing better templates.. Nolar, actually it is this lazybum's fault for not bothering to learn HTML. Man, I can't create links to other friends' blogs, or even put emoticons here. Really cannot make it.

Second paper down.. two to go

Took my ccomputer communication networks exam yesterday. In contrast to the first paper, this one's a joke (almost). The total marks are only 40, but we were given 3 hours to complete them. Doh, its even easier than the quizzes (midterms). In the end, I finished it in an hour..

The exams here sure are really different from NTU's. I mean, as in the above case, total points for an exam is 40 marks? I wonder whether there are 200-mark papers. Also, we are required to write our name, the prof's name, date and time, in addition to student number and subject. What if I'm the prof's nephew huh? Besides, the exams are done in normal lecture theaters, and its free seating. Papers are placed on places where students are allowed to seat, thus students won't be sitting next to each other.

I remembered an interesting occasion which took place during halloween. I went to a halloween party organised by the Vietnamese Students Assocication, and was greeted by one of the ticket collectors.

Him : Hey, you are taking 4DK4, right?
Me: Yeah. Do I know you?
Him: Nope. I noticed you in class.
Me: I see.. (Wow, do I look very chio or what?)
Him: Yeah, you are always late.
Me: .... -_-"

Musings..

Strong are the demons within.
They come and go, at the merest whim,
causing delusions and pain.
Their strength grows and ebbs, like the motion of waves.
For days and nights we tussled, a match of will against chaos.
They disappear, but never are banished.
A catalyst brings them back forth, and thus the cycle continues.
Observe this endless struggle I did,
hopefully one day they will be no more.

~Spockspeare (doh!! :P)

Benfica 2 - MU 1
Very disappointing.. I would have thought MU would do better than that. Hell, MU's 3-0 win against Portsmouth is currently their biggest win this season??! MU does have a young team though, so their inconsistency can be attributed to that. However, for all Ferguson's talk about rebuilding a new team, he might not get to see his efforts reach fruition. Mr Glazer might just lose his patience, and Luxemburgo will find somebody to accompany him in search for a new job.

In my opinion, all this problems started from Peter Kenyon. MU's misfortunes can arguably be attributed to him. Who let Barca snatch Ronaldinho away at the last minute, when the deal seemed wrapped up? Who defected and convinced Arjen Robben to change his mind and join billionaire's club? Thus MU had to settle for a entertaining but ultimately not-so-useful player who is much better at crossing the ball to the opposing players rather than to his teammates.

Hopefully the loss will sting the younger players to give more mature and consistent performances.

I'm rather free lately, so I checked out several malaysian and singaporean blogs. If you didn't know already, Jeff Ooi is the most famous Malaysian blogger. His blog is mainly about news.

My favourite one would be minshorts. She's a witty, really fiery and creative writer. Her blog has plenty of 'no kiddies allowed' stuff. Check this post, and the comments also.. funny lor.

For singaporean blogs, there's Mr Brown's blog. Didn't read it, but I heard one of their 'shows', 'zhng my car' and it's hilarious. If anybody wants to know what Singlish is like, there's no better way to start than to listen to 'Zhng my car'. You can download it from a yousendit.com server (its only there for 7 days from now) or alternatively go find it in Mr. Brown's website. For your info, 'zhng' means tweak.

Voted best asian blog by a large margin last year is Xia Xue's blog, which claims to have 10,000 readers. I only gave a cursory read. The content is mostly a chronicle of her life, and I don't find it outstanding. Hmm, maybe she won due to her cute looks?

Argh, the paper earlier is one of the sh*ttiest papers I have taken. Imagine taking EE2003, and the prof only provided 7,8 equations, of which I only understand 3. The rest are like quantum physics related equations, which is just greek to me. Also, the concepts of a high-mark question wasn't taught in this class, but in a class last year, where most students here attended before. It basically asks us to calculate the phonon energy when a process occurs. Also, most answers to the questions cannot be found in the lecture notes. Haiz, the system here is very different. I think I'll have a marginal fail for this paper. The prof better give me a good mark for the other 50% (consists of assignments and report and presentation). Haiz, anyway, its my fault for not reading the textbook thoroughly.

AirAsia is offering up to 2 million free air tickets! (either today or yesterday's paper). To my friends in NTU, can start planning liao, maybe can go on a trip after IA (You guys plan, I follow :P)

First paper tomorrow.. solid state devices I. Actually most of the content is the same as EE2003 plus the physics of BJT. Since there are not tutorials for this course, and the lecturer never gave any tutorial questions, except for 2 assignments of 5 questions each, I really don't know how to prepare for this exam. I don't even know whether we are required to remember the formulas, and the time given to complete this paper. Aiyoh, so many uncertainties. But a classmate told me that this prof isn't brutal in setting his questions, so I think I can still manage to pass the paper, which takes up 50% of the marks. I'm pretty sure I passed the other 50% (yet another uncertainty; our marks are still unknown). I don't even have the textbook, so I can only rely on his lecture notes, which are copied from the chalkboard, and it's pretty lousy.

Hah, all the best to myself la...

The exams are coming, from 7 Dec to 21 Dec. I'm going to be bored to death pretty soon. Really no life now, being cooped up in my room all day long. Going to other cities cost $$$. I longed to go see some friends, but I don't want to disturb their studying. I don't feel like chatting with my housemates, maybe cos of different freqeuncy bah. Sigh, dunno what to do, maybe I'll just go chat with the aunties and uncles in the school eateries, LOL.

This Is My Life, Rated
Life:	6.2
Mind:	7
Body:	6.3
Spirit:	7.9
Friends/Family:	3.2
Love:	0
Finance:	6.1
Take the Rate My Life Quiz

I found out about this online 'life rating' quiz from a friendster, so I decided to try it out. Ok, lets go through it..

Friends/Family (3.2): Your friends and family rating measures your relationships with those around you, and is based on how large, healthy, and dependable your social network is.

What?! I admit, I'm not very sociable nor talkative, and pretty much stick to myself in the past (now, this guy can approach any leng lui in the street and say 'Hi, nice to meet you' liao.. LOL, just joking), but the rating's abit harsh. I'm also on good terms with my family. Also, the quiz asked how many of my grandparents are still alive, and how close I am to them. Does this matter?

Love (0): Your love rating is a measure of your current romantic situation. Sharing your heart with another person is one of life's most glorious, terrifying, rewarding experiences.

Wah.. Hahahaha.. I can't stop laughing when I saw this. A friend, who's single, still got 5+, which means being single does not automatically assign you a zero. Does the quiz indicate that I'm a celibate? Or does it mean to say 'You are hopeless'? Touch wood, touch wood.. I agree with a low rating, but zero..?? I better go consult Kean Peng on how to be more romantic :P

Mind (7) and finance (6.1): Should be higher, hehe.

Interesting quiz, though I don't really agree with the results. And the survey lacks accuracy too, since there's no way they could prevent a person frpm submitting a quiz more than once. Go try it out guys, and post your results in talkback.

Communcation networks
Perfect + 0 = 50% = pass!
Yeah!!
LOL

Really dislike those assignments, so purposely did not hand up one of them. Each assignment only 5%, no big deal.

What the heck.. the lecturer gave many tips on what's not going to be in exams (she cancelled out many tough topics), and the content taught over the duration of he course is less than EE3017 (yeah, i know, i've been looking through them); eg, we don't have WLANs and internetworking. If based on this subject alone, NTU's courses are much tougher.

Just a thought..

Hoped to be..
No longer blind, may the light guide my path
No longer foolish, may wisdom guide my actions
No longer aimless, may my mind be focused
No longer selfish, may my friends be well and happy

Went to a casino at Niagara Falls yesterday with the M'sian friends. Its the 1st time I've been in a Casino. Boh huat, last time on the high school trip to Genting, I was still underaged; and after enrolment in NTU, it was like relentless study and ECAs. Fortunately, they have cars, and drive up to nearly 180km/h sometimes, so its a reasonably short trip.

My friends played the 'guess the numbers of 3 dices' game. I didn't gamble though; must see how pros gamble 1st :P. I'm only wiling to lose $10, but each bet requires at least $5; so two consecutive losses in the beginning, and its game over. Not worth it I think. The way people play is rather interesting. They think for a long time and carefully choose a combination of bets. Can't figure out their strategy though. Personally, I would just toss a coin, and place all my chips on either 'small' or 'big'. Not a bad strategy wat, for n consecutive wins, I'll have 2^n gains; but then, the chances of doing so are like 1/(2^n) ..

An interesting observation of the big/small combo is that if you place equal amount of bets on both 'big' and 'small', you won't ever win, but there's only a (2/(6^3)) or 1/108 chance or losing. That's a smart move by casino operators; the odds are always against the players, but its small enough that the players would win enough to come back for more.

My hair's getting long d.. Its been 3 months since my last haircut. Guess how much a haircut costs here. Its $20~$30!! (highlight it to see) That's crazy.. Maybe I shld go to a hairdresser's and show her a pic of Jay Chou, "You charge so much, I better look like him (pic) after you are finished" Haiz, so I guess I have to trim my hair myself from the mirror.

I read from a canadian friend's blog that she's applying for a part time $98 an hour job! I don't know whether she got the job though. Point is, are the people here too rich or what? Or maybe the job is bank robbery accomplice? LOL

Sheesh.. the weather here is starting to get really cold. The temperature these few days is below zero deg. Previously, my dumbo ears were getting numb due to the cold. Now, its my nose and face, which I can't cover with a winter cap, which are suffering. Fortunately, I'm indoors most of the time, so its still not too bad.

Unfortunately, the heating system of my house is not very effective. Even my room, which has a small heater by iteslf, is cold. One of my housemates has started to wear long johns indoors. No, its a he, not a she; and he's definitely not sexy in it.

Helped a friend proofread her humanities course essay, a 2K words, 40% final marks assignment, just now. I'm quite surprised at the way she writes; she claimed that the 'grammar mistakes' and 'poor writing' I pointed out are actually valid. Hmm, maybe written english is different here? Or maybe my standard has declined already. Engineer mah, where can write good english wan? If write x, y and z, then I know lah.. LOL

Check this out.. pretty good
http://www.boreme.com/boreme/funny-2004/m_sand_art.php

Here's a post from a blog from a friend on exchange from Japan, on her hall of residence. In any case, such things prob won't happen in NTU rez, due to CCTV..

Last Sunday, 3:30a.m.
Terrible, terrible morning.... finally, i felt like writing about the morning. in English...

To Nagi, you were damn right！ The terrible, deafening sound of fire alarm reverberated in my res at 3:30 a.m. !!!!!!

At that time, I used ear plugs to sleep. I need to use it on weekend.... there were stupid noisy people every weekend.

I didn't noticed the fire alarm for a while. My ear plugs were so effective.
At first, I thought it was a sound from alarm clock.
Then my mind was waking up and I finally realized it was a fire alarm.
I had to go out with pajamas and my face liked a dropped pie... that was really sucks... TERRIBLE.

I kept out for two hours. I couldn't go to bed again until 5:30 a.m.!!

You know what?
The reason why fire alarms were set off was, someone played with a fire extinguisher and sprayed the hallway! Can you believe that?? And we haven't found the culprit yet.

And, the worst thing is, if we can't find who did it, every one of us living in the res will have to pay for recovering or cleaning instead of the idiot ( or idiots)!!! This is ridiculous!

I felt I don't want to live in a res anymore....
I hate living with stupid, retarded jerks.

Finally, after a 2 month absence, I started writing again (applause, applause). Being the considerate guy that I am, I understood that u guys in NTU were going to take exams soon, so I postponed blogging until after the exams to let u guys study in peace :P

OK, lets get started.. (taking a deep breath)

Right now, my studies are in a mess. I'm only registered in 4 subjects, since I dropped one. I realised that my matching for integrated electronics was really poor, so I decided to drop it. Since the subject (CMOS circuits) is useful, n the lecturer's very good, I continued attending the class anyway. Also, my replacement subject for semicond devices & proc basically just covers EE2003 + BJT, so I didn't learn much from it. Its difficult to allocate my time when I'm taking a subject for no credit, n taking exams for a subject I've learnt b4.

Also, dropping a subject means I've to take 2 yr 3 subjects, int electronics and electromagnetics, in my final yr, both of which r the most jialat ones. Junnie, Khian Nam, Geok Teng, I'll have to depend on you guys to teach me during IA (everybody see your names here d, so cannot refuse ya?:P), if not, I sure si kiao kiao during final yr.

The only good thing is that my grades are still OK due to the lighter workload. Hehe, I even managed to whack the other students in some quizzes (they call it midterms), like getting 80-90% when many of them got 50-60%. Hah, too bad the exams only consists of 40-50% of total marks. If they are 30% or less, I'm guaranteed to pass (passing grade = 50%) d, so I can skip final exams and start holidays early, LOL. I still prefer NTU's system though.

One of my housemates, Jade, was really fed up with our (guys) sloppiness in keeping the kitchen clean. She stuck notes like "please clean up the counter after you have dirtied it", "please remove the clogged food from the sink" etc. However, apparently, its not very effective, since she decided to move out after december.

It has started to snow here, albeit very lightly. My first impression of snowing is a scene after a massive free-for-all chicken fight, where chicken feathers are floating around. You might think its cold, but in fact it feels warmer when its snowing.
I'm not socializing as much as I would like to here. The fact that I'm taking 3rd/4th yr engineering classes means that my classmates are usually very busy, often rushing off to meetings on group projects after classes, and our schedules are different, so its not easy to mix with them. Moreover, they have formed cliques d, so its difficult to butt in. So I usually get to meet new friends from extracurricular activities., and they are usually in year 1 or 2

Also, my friends here are mostly Asian, or canadian born chinese. Maybe this is cos I usually joined ECAs by chinese societies (eg, taiwan stud. assoc.). Also, I find it quite difficult to talk to ang mohs for any long period of time, maybe frequency differs too much.

When I first came, I saw MSA on the society list. I was pleasantly surprised, until I found that it stands for Muslim Studnts Association, LOL. Anyway, I got to know a small group of m'sians and s'poreans (7, 8 ppl) with whom i went out with a few times. Almost all of them are in second year, and one is still underaged. I'm the old man in the group.

I find the campus here more vibrant, since there are many special-interest groups campaigning for something all the time. For example, recently I started to see porn everywhere on campus. That's right, the Campus Crusade for Christ (society) launched an anti-porn campaign on campus :P. They stuck their posters everywhere on campus, even in toilets! They even ran full-page adverts in the uni newspaper, and offer lucky draws on gifts for taking a porn survey. However, many people are unhappy at the CCCs aggressive campagning, and started to 'tembak' them in the uni paper editorials. Check out this interesting article. http://www.thesil.ca/article.pl?sid=05/11/11/2120206&mode=thread&tid=21

The uni paper is also much less conservative and much more interesting, and has more content than NTU's. Issues such as homosexuality are discussed. Also, user opinions sometimes contain verbal obscenities and strong attacks and condemnations on other views/writers. Its interesting sometimes to see ppl 'tembak' each other like that LOL.

There's just way too much to put everything in here, so I'll stop here. You can check out my pics in MSN spaces.

I'm most probably going back to pg on 31 dec.

Take care everyone.

I’m getting very busy now, so I’ve to blog in such condense form. Seems that the students here don’t have final year project, but each of their final year subjects has a major project. So now I’m getting a load of assignments, projects, quizzes, which is really stressful. Serves me right for taking 3 final yr subjects here. Also, some projects are done in a group. Hope that I won’t piss off group mate here by being too slack on my part in the non-essential-to-my-major projects.

I still don’t quite understand how students here study. For example, in my software engineering class, I was usually busy scribbling notes and highlighting lecture notes while most other students just sat back (and put their feet up) and listen (or sleep) with nothing in their hands

I miss NTU already. The lecture notes used here “no head no tail” wan; they usually jump straight away into the topic without introducing the topic first. Also, they are much less detailed than NTU’s notes. Seems that the lecturers expect (or want to force) students to read the textbooks. Seems to me that the teaching quality also not really up to NTU standards. I also do not find the notion of using TA’s instead of profs to conduct tutorials appealing. They come into class to ‘discuss’ questions instead to teach, and in the end they themselves also ‘bey hiau’. Many of their lecture theaters are like large classrooms, not cool and comfortable like NTU’s. Well, at least I won’t fall asleep as easily here.

Textbooks here are also very expensive. All engineering textbooks I know of costs more than CND 120. That’s a obscenely high price compared to NTU’s SGD20-40+.

Feeling a bit ‘bey syiok’ now. Last weekend, I went to Wonderland in a trip organized by CSSA. I made a few friends on the bus, and we took the rides and took photos together. Some of the group photos are on their camera. I gave them my msn and also name card, but none of them has added me yet.

Last Tuesday was the first time I met another Malaysian on campus. I overheard her mentioning to another student that she’s from m’sia in the lecture theater in ‘critical thinking’ class. It was a pleasant surprise to see another Malaysian here. We couldn’t talk much after the class since I’m riding a bike while she’s taking the bus, so I left her my name card (with all contacts). And she hasn’t added me in MSN yet. What the heck, diabaikan again. Cheh.

Some of you asked about my housemates, so I'll talk about the (behind their backs :P) here. There are 6 ppl staying here, including me; 4 guys and 2 girls. 2 of the guys are from China and have graduated, one, Ping, is doing his PhD in maths, another, Tony, taking extra undergrad courses. Both are really nice. They lent me the rice cooker, help me hook up a tel line, and let me have free use of their kitchen stuff. Their accent is rather heavy, but still understandable, and they have been in canada for many years already. Another guy, Mat, is a canadian chinese, and is staying next to me in the basement. He can speak cantonese but not mandarin, and is the macho and tough kind. His speaker set is powerful, but luckily he's considerate enough to turn down the volume late at night. One of the girls, Jade, is a canadian ang moh, whom I have not talked to much. The last girl, Fei, is a 1st year student from Beijing. Surprisingly, unlike most Beijing ppl, her accent is not heavy at all.

The house's residents don't do stuff together, and only chat when we happen to be in the living room or kitchen at the same time. We also cook our own meals seperately. Since 5 of us cook, it can get quite messy during meal times. Just imagine 4-5 rice cookers on the kitchen table.

I cook purely to save costs. Cooked food here is expensive, even fast food. A chinese economy rice with one vege/meat costs $5 here(and 15% tax on top of that), and $1 for each extra vege/meat, whereas I can make a meal with 3 vege/meat for $1+. The cheapest fast food here is subs and burgers. Subs is like a hot dog burger with different kinds of meat and vege, and also can be up to 12 inches long. I haven't ate at a restaurant here before. Cannot tahan, cos have to give tips, as if 15% tax not enough.

I also got a bicycle here d, so no need to rely on unreliable buses anymore (YAY!!). A previous tenant dumped his bike here, and the landlord let me have it. So I brought it for repairs for $15.

I went to toronto (visited CN tower and walked around) last sat, and Niagara Falls last sun. I don't have time to talk about it now though. Studies here are rather difficult, and I'm rather stressed recently. So continue next time..

PS. The photos taken in toronto and niagara falls are available at my MSN webspaces. Got some videos too, so ask me if you wanna see them

This lecture theater is enclosed in glass walls.















Scene in a computer room. But where are the computer monitors?? Heh, there are placed at a slanting angle below the desk, which is covered witha layer of clear plastic. There are not as many computers in Mcmaster as in NTU, I think, probably around 300 total in 4 places. However, the computers here are very high-tech. Every (yes, every!) one of them uses a P4 3.0Ghz processor, and a 17" (or maybe is 19") LCD. There are free scanning services available too.

This is Hamilton Hall. Previously, I stated that this is a hall of residence (I assumed based on physical appearance and name). Its actually a building for conducting lessons! One of my lectures are held here.

This is one of the halls of residence

A rig set up by Outdoor Club for members during "welcome dinner". I thought I could get my dinner here (although only burgers are provided). But I gave up after waiting in line for half an hour, and the line seems to be still static. They are BBQing the burgers themselves, so it takes a while to get a burger ready. It might be cheaper for them to do it this way, but I find it very inefficient.


One of my classes are held at night, 7-10pm (after 6 hours of classes), so I manage to take these night photos. The building is one of the 4 libraries here (and each of them has its own book lending rules and system). The 3 hour class is a social science subject, "the culture of technology", which I find very sien. After the 1st class, I find that its not easy. I have to write my thoughts and reflections (1000 word essays) on technology and society clearly, which I don't even care about.

Aih, the photos and captions are really jumbled up. Paiseh, but I don't know how to adjust them.

Sidewalk sale. Participants can turn the wheel to get free chocolate bars or other stuff. Enlarge the image to see what this participant got.
Scene at the sidewalk sale. Really 'people mountain, people sea'


One of the lecture halls I attended. Seems abit outdated. The lecturer uses transparencies with the OHP, and the blackboard also!


A more advanced lecture hall. This lecturer(not in pic) uses his laptop with the OHP. However, his lecture style made me very sleepy.
Bangunan Sains Encik Burke.. Haha, seriously, its the Burke Science Building, one of the places I have my classes in. Too bad my classes are all in different buildings, so have to walk a long way between classes. Its like having a class in north spine, then the next in south spine, then another in north spine again.

Argh.. fell sick on the 3rd day of orientation, so in the end managed to join for 3 days only. The welcome week orientation is only organised by Halls of residence and the society of off-campus students. It seems to me that the orientation is to let freshies to be exposed to as many people as possible. Hence, there is no permanent group; for each activity, a new group is formed. Many activities are organised by the students union, which is to be participated by all freshies The orientation by SOCS is also not very well organised, I think. It seems that the orientation leaders are enjoying the games, not the freshies. They also cancelled the final day finale program(!?). Like that also can, duh.

There are squirrels in the campus.
The SOCS gathering, before orientation starts.











Pretty nice game, too bad I didn't play.

Some ppl during the orientation











Student juggling with 'fire sticks'
Another game




For climbing, obviously
One of the performances on-stage

The roads here are other odd. At every junction without traffic lights (and there are lot of them), either there are no markings at all, or there are white strips across the road at every branch of the junction. I wondered how the drivers here determine who has right of way. Now, it seems to me that there is no right of way. All drivers stop at junctions and look around before driving on. In the case that two cars come to a junction together, they will hesitate for a few seconds before one takes the initiative to go first. That’s very inefficient. I won’t have the patience to drive like that. Heh, I’m also sure a Canadian would find Malaysian roads terrifying to drive on.

The tap water here also has quite a lot of chemicals, I think. I have been here for more than a week already, and I still find the taste of the water odd.

I have visited downtown (means the town center) a few times already. There’s quite a lot of people, but it lacks the “re4 nao4” atmosphere of Toronto or KL. There is a fountain, some monuments and small parks, but the place is not very clean. The shops are rather dull and small also.

My room’s still not ready yet. The landlord has yet to get me a table/desk. The carpet’s dirty, but there’s nothing I can do but wear shoes inside the room. Stuff here is really expensive, so I have to find other ways to get them. Fortunately, there are some useful items that are left behind by previous exchange/international students in the international students’ advisors storeroom. From there, I got a deep saucepan, a duvet (spelled doo-vey; a thick, feather filled blanket), pillow, small mat, string, and some cutlery. The landlord let me have the bicycle left by a previous tenant, which I brought for repairs. I bought an air heater at a garage sale for $1.50 (no tax required, yay!). A housemate lent me his extra rice cooker; so now the only thing missing is a non-stick pan for cooking. Maybe I can borrow it from a housemate also.

Yesterday, Saturday, I went to a big mall quite far away. Luckily, I reached the place (I have a tendency to get to the wrong place here). Unluckily, I reached there at 5.55pm. The door sign says it closes at 6pm! Duh, I wonder how the people here do business.

Today, the orientation week has started, and orientation’s here rather different from that of NTU. There’s only one week of orientation, and it’s the same week for all societies and residences, and the programs for different organizations often overlap. That also means you can only join one society’s orientation. Besides, the fee’s $135 for the orientation for whichever society you wish to join, and you’ll get a goodie bag from the respective society and a wristband (MACPASS) to indicate that you have paid up. That’s way too expensive for me (RM400). Anyway, I don’t care, and joined the Society of off-campus students(SOCS) (society fees = $25) and sneakily joined in the orientation. Hopefully, they won’t notice I don’t have the wristband.

Today, the first day of orientation, they have a lot of crazy cheers (they didn’t distribute the lyrics to us though, so still blur about them), crazy actions (one group walked around the room with each person waving one of his/her socks and chanting ‘dirty socks (SOCS), dirty socks) and free lunch (plain burgers; little nutrition; no fibre :( ). Then there are games stalls and performances in the field, which is available for all MACPASS holders. Too bad, can’t join the games, which seems fun (they check for MACPASS, I think). Since everybody’s on the field, the orientation reps wear big baggy clothes of different colors to distinguish themselves. E.g. the SOCS reps wear orange, and engineering reps wear red. Lets see what they have in the evening..

View from roof of student's center.

Fountain in downtown Hamilton
Haven't seen this kind of bird before
The engineering building
Another view of the houses here
The basement of my house, showing the washing machine and the dryer.
My bedroom



My bedroom, view 2
Stairs down to the basement

Basement toilet
Basement bathroom
Living room
Kitchen
Kitchen, view 2
My cooking utensils/stuff. I got the ladle, red cup, plastic containers, knife, a plate, a bowl, and saucepan for free
Not too different from Malaysians, ya? Litter in front of 'no litter' sign.











Dunno what monument this is. I was in a hurry, and don't have time to look carefully.

Lime Ridge Mall, I went there for 5 minutes nia. (reason in the following post)