Orientation Schedule/ Journal

***watch here for updates***

Sep 18, Sat
Move in! Being kiasu we went early to Shoreland... only to find no one in! It's a really old hotel so the rooms are musty and some of the furniture's falling apart... but i have a great view of the lake! Registration went pretty smoothly and convocation was interesting (save the sleep-inducing speech in Rockefeller). It's really sweet and amusing the way the American parents cry at sending their kids off to college...

Finally met my roomates! Yep the long-awaited, anticipated, crucial roomies. Turned out they'd actually called each other so They seem pretty nice... though one seems friendlier and the other is more laid-back and reticent. Heh while moving a chest of drawers she accidentally smashed my left index finger... it was the highlight of the day! Pretty funny cos my roomies were so traumatised, they were clutching each other while the O-Aide tried to stop the bleeding. I'm gonna have a cool scar! No gangrene in Jesus' name.

Dinner was a house (floor) meeting where we sat around eating incredibly cheesy deep dish pizza. Met a bunch of really diverse ppl... No other S'poreans on my floor! Though a lot of intl students and ABCs/Ks.


Sep 19, Sun
Aaagh i miss gg to church! And i didn't even get up early to go for some chem honors test... only realised later i might need it to pass out of gen chem and start bio this quarter.

Math placement test - I've forgotten what a sine graph looks like.

After dinner (they eat REALLY early here, like 5pm) my house went on this crazy Scav Hunt downtown... kinda like a whirlwind tour. Too bad i was focusing on keeping up with the rest... cos Chicago really is beautiful. We took pictures with lions in front of Smart Museum, went up to the John Hancock observatory (95 floors in 10s!!!) and charged thru the restaurant to take a photo by the window...


Sep 20, Mon
Lang placement tests
Chinese oral examiner: You took O levels in Singapore? What grade did you get?
Me: Er... A1?
Chinese oral examiner: oh ok you can go now.
=P

At lunch I was soooo happy to see a whole bunch of singaporean faces. After lunch (Pierce food is better!!) went to see Andrew's room... Max is disgustingly well-located (but the rooms are puny and there's less community spirit - I don't care what you say! :P)

Academic advising meeting was a zoo. everyone asking abt their own personal schedules and requirements. I don't like my adviser ("It really doesn't matter what you take the first quarter... you're gonna come into my office, read out the course number and section, and go out in 15 min") seems to eager to write us all off instead of getting to know us better.

Got my authcode! Figured out how to make an intl call... Sam says i'm getting the accent alr. Haha it's getting too easy to slip into it esp talking to so many angmohs...


Sep 21, Tue
PE test - noteworthy tests incl this weird one where you have to raise a pole above your head with your chin on the ground, the step test, and curl-ups (ridiculous crunches in time to a metronome)! anyway passed out of 2 out of 3 quarters... but i might take more just for fun. soc dance soc dance...

Placement test results - 153 math! no honors calc for me.

Been having good long chats with one of my roommates. Discovered that she and I have a lot in common! We both like cooking, don't really eat fast food and our fave ice-cream flavour is choc hazelnut! We're also both scatterbrains (erm maybe not so good). Esp glad that we're all Christians - praise God! She's very, very nice and is actually interested in listening to me ramble abt how diff things are in Singapore... also offered to share her printer, fridge and 20" TV. :)

Skipped the sex signals discussion to get a queue no for SSN (well not me exactly since i've screwede up my I-20, but it was for moral support) and found 200 ppl swarming the building... we gave up and decided to go some complicated but ultimately less wait-involving route instead. I hate queueing almost as much as i hate walking.


Sep 22, Wed
Intl Student's Workshop! great greasy breakfast. followed almost immediately after by great cheesy lunch... my appetite's shrunk here tt could be a good thing.

Tour of The Reg - this is the hugest library i've been in! 5 floors. Computers and study tables everywhere and even a cafe... And the automated stacks are so cool... You can play live CS among them :P

RC party - free shakes! the dance floor was pretty pathetic... but we watched a nice improv (better than Second City). I also got to know one of my housemates better. I'm extroverted but I clam up in big groups... one-to-one conversations are so much more meaningful.


Sep 23, Thu
Swim test - waste to jump into the pool for 2 laps.

Registration - got my alternative schedule: Math, Hume, Chem and Greek. I'm prob going to add Bio and drop Greek tho. Now the only prob is, my classes start before 9 everyday meaning I won't get to talk to ppl back home when they're online. Hmm guess i could go to the library or sthing...

Emergency chem test - my roomie ran into the dining hall and told me i had to take it half an hour before! i'd emailed an o-aide abt it the night before and she tried to call my room. Then ran around campus trying to find a calculator (Andrew i owe you one!) Heh thank God for friends.

Went for an a capella group showcase in RC. we thought it'd be a little performance but turns out tt's next Wed only... we listened to a CD instead bleah.

We had an aims of education address, which was cool, but then we had to go discuss it, and it turned into some political debate which i couldn't get the hang of... what was pretty impressive tho, was the amt n diversity of opinions my housemates seemed to have... there were American Iranians arguing that the US is the most accepting country around, and others totally disagreeing... i was chilling with my cheesecake and nachos :P

We've shifted around our furniture and now i'm next to the newly-installed TV... Was really irritated cos everyone on our floor was watching DVDs and i couldn't call home or play music... and some ppl left wrappers from the hersheys i passed ard on the floor :-/ I thought I was messy... but yeah tolerance.


Sep 24, Fri
Vocal audition! it went ok, tho i was really terrified of the sight-reading component... was touched that so many of my housemates offered to help play my part, and came to ask me how it went after that.

my roomie spends ALL her time on her cell phone with her 9-mth bf (bf of 9 mths, not bf who's 9 mths old, in case you're a word moron)... i mean like every free moment. it's sweet but she calls in the aftn, late at night... and comes in way after my other roomie and i have fallen asleep. how will she study? *shrugs* ok maybe i'm just jealous.


Sep 25, Sat
We're 19!
Yeah had a chance to make MY phone call :) Then went to sign up for mobile -no- CELL phones, for which we SSN-less ppl had to downpay US$600 for *owch* After stoning around Water Tower Place for like 3 hours we headed to Navy Pier to meet 2 Northwestern kia, eat Greek gyros and sit on the Ferris Wheel! Nice and also slightly surreal to see zhuwei so far from home. anyway we had a lot of fun!

Went to my first frat party! it was pretty much what i expected - wall-to-wall with ppl, in varying degrees of drunkenness, cheap beer, and a dance floor where you couldn't move except when the person next to you did. I'd say it was a waste of my $5 but i'm glad i got a taste of partying while our nice senior was there to bring us around. Will prob be glad for the crush of bodies to keep warm in winter... tho i kinda lost interest in dancing after someone threw a (full, open) beer can at me.


Sep 26, Sun
Going to Bethel Christian Church. I'm really looking forward to hearing God's word... Lord, I expect and receive great blessings today!