A Journey with the 6th NCBVians

NCBV Badger Badger Badger

2006-10-11T13:11:00.000-07:00

The Return of the NCBVians

2006-08-23T16:33:00.000-07:00

Some pics taken at Homecoming 2006.

More about NOC Homecoming here

2006-02-12T16:08:00.000-08:00

Estee 4: Guys 0

2006-02-12T14:59:00.000-08:00

Estee 3: Guys 0

2006-02-12T12:41:00.000-08:00

Estee 2: Guys 0

2006-02-12T12:33:00.000-08:00

Estee 1: Guys 0

2006-02-08T20:56:00.000-08:00

2006-01-27T16:41:00.000-08:00

NCBV Batch 7's Skiing Orientation trip to Poconos!

act SEH but not SEH guys? =P

pretty gals of NCBV!

a dance-on-ice performance~Ram + Tze Ling!

the 'awed' audience! =)

NCBV rockzzz!

2006-01-23T11:19:00.000-08:00

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GEAN! NCBV LOVES U!

2006-01-17T07:23:00.000-08:00

Look at what NCBV did to him...

2005-12-06T20:03:00.000-08:00

Well done, Ram.... @ Mid-Atlantic Jr. Badminton Championship

Under 25s, winner of men's Singles.

One and only one fan cum supporter cum cheer leader :)

2005-12-05T17:46:00.000-08:00

Its snowing....

2005-11-19T15:10:00.000-08:00

I was having lunch with one of the investors of my company's project today, when the topic of Singapore came up. It's always the case. "Oh you are from Singapore!"

And he started praising the world of Singapore. Especially the Government. And of course I have to try to say something good back to his home country, but nevertheless, a sense of pride welled-up inside me. And he mentioned that although it is a very small country, she had made herself a name in the globe as the little power red dot who had risen without resorting to backside-licking or other underhand methods. While we had no culture like China or America, we had effectively integrated the best from both sides of the world, and like what he said, a country where East meets West, absorbed the essence to become Western East (he said in Chinese, so it seems a bit farnie translating the original words to English).

Not to say I am trying to POR the Government, but apparently all the people whom I have spoke with said one common thing about Singapore: The uncorrupted and efficient Government, besides the fact that it is very clean. Nevermind that we get fined for everything we do;or certain policies that might not Singapore as free as America, but one thing for certain: Singapore Government gets whatever needs to be done, done. And it's free from corruption, the single vital recipe to a country's survival.

And of all the clients I have talked to, those who have visited Singapore wanted to stay there when they grew old. And others whom have not seen it, but heard of it, put Singapore as one of the top 5 countries they planned on visiting.

And then it strucked me how our youngsters are dying to get out of Singapore, while those who have seen the world wanted to go back.

So my message to you, readers, be proud of Singapore. Singapore is so efficient that everything had been well-catered for, and yet the people are still complaining and wanting for more. Still not convinced? Spend a few years overseas, and you will be dying to go back.

Nevermind that the Ang Mohs dunch understand us. Or that the traditional Cheena-ist dislike us for being part Western part Eastern. Be proud to be a Singaporean! Live as a Singaporean human, die as a Singaporean ghost! And like true blue entrepreneurs that Singapore has been trying to cultivate: 就为我们自创的 Singlish 发扬光大吧！

2005-11-16T09:43:00.000-08:00

hey Prof Liu...

it looks more like Iris's celebration instead...*lauf*

2005-11-15T20:19:00.000-08:00

Jeffery Tiong and Yew Zhen Bday Celebration

2005-11-10T11:15:00.000-08:00

I was just sitting in TOWNE building in school when I decided to IM an old friend from hall.

So many things have changed - somehow. Things indeed are ephemeral. I was filled with a tinge of sadnes because -gasp- this guy is attached. And I used to have a intsy weensy crush on him ( ok not so tiny maybe ).

So like now he's with someone.

Like so many things have changed since we left - life goes on. NUS runs as it is, our families cope without our presense. And to think I expected the world to stop. To stop for me. For the earth to just -stop- spinning on its axis and to stop it's samba with the sun.

No this is not the case. Opportunities slip by, new doors open. The ephermerality of life and it's circumstances. That is indeed the inexorability of happenstance.

I look back and I know things are different - relationships have changes. new bonds are forged and some old bonds break. Every cloud indeed does have a silver lining.

I think back about the time when I got the job offer from my company, indeed it is 122 days here and I am counting. I love it here, I love my job. Yes that is what drives me. But I don't enjoy school in particular because sometimes, I must admit that i feel too tired to actually so my readings after work.

Life must go on somehow, this is a path I chose. This is an experience of a lifetime. This path will open many more doors in the future, I know. It's funny because I think of us 6th batch as having come so far - from being strangers to a bunch of friends who have no one but ourselves to reply on. We eat together, bitch together, cry together and watch corny vidoes together. Oh yes - we also get stuck hard in the mud as one. (not like I particularly enjoyed that)

We have learnt so much and we have given up so much to come here. We must make sure everyday counts....

Sorry i didn't expect this to be so unpalatable. It was supposed to be a happy blog, somehow it digressed to sounding so nostalgic. I miss home, I miss the people at home but I look forward to endless learning.

Ak Kelly would put it. Fun in Philly, Frying in Philly and lastly, Flying in Philly.

:) I love you all

2005-11-06T22:52:00.000-08:00

That's us after last week's EAS 345 class with Profs Babin, Cassel and the two guests, Andy Radcliffe and Brian Halak, two Venture Capitalists ;) -jules

2005-11-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

I love halloween.... BOO!

-eStee

2005-11-02T10:06:00.000-08:00

That's Estee, me, Neeraj and Jaron at the Halloween party! :D

2005-10-24T18:52:00.000-07:00

THREE CHEERS FOR ERIC
All of us are proud of Eric for winning the District level Humorous Speech Contest organised by Toastmasters. He is going to represent the District 38 at New Jersey next weekend. Go ERIC !!!!!!!!

2005-10-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

TEAM NCBV AT THE SUMMIT OF MT CHAMPLAIN

2005-10-19T16:20:00.000-07:00

On 19 Oct 2005, at 1620h, while on MSN with Kaihong, Ziling made this exclamation:

" I'M THE CUTE WONG LOH!"

2005-10-14T12:39:00.000-07:00

PROFESSOR JARON LIU'S THEORY ON SUN APPROXIMITY

During an entrepreneur seminar yesterday, I (kaihong) had the privilege of having an insightful discussion with my band of brothers' member, very good friend and colleague Professor Jaron Liu.

He introduced the his latest paper, the Theory on Sun Approximity to a few of us.

Prof Liu: Dudes, I heard you guys going Vermont tml. Have a good trip.

me: yah, it will be cold. dunno how much clothes to bring.

Prof Liu: Dudes! You dun have to bring that many. It will be hot.
THE HIGHER YOU GO, THE HOTTER IT IS.

me: huh? how come?

Prof Liu: you get nearer to the sun, dude. It's hot.

me: bleah. den why ppl wear winter clothings up Everest?

Prof Liu: Everest is an ICE MOUNTAIN.

2005-10-12T20:59:00.000-07:00

I don't know how many people can say out proud, " I LOVE MY COMPANY, THE REASON I WAKE UP IS TO GO TO WORK."

I love Applied Clinical Intelligence. I just love it. Why, you ask. Because they are willing to let me learn, despite me not being as capable as I wish I could be. They still let me learn and open opportunities and doorways for me to try.

A couple of days ago, Liza, my supervisor brought me along with her "shopping" for a party place for our annual holiday party. As we drove around, I had a good chat with her - about her life, our company, my life and our NOC programe - what a rare chance it is that we have time to "chat", if you will.

And how i enjoyed it. Getting to know Liza beyond work - to get to know her better as a person. The sheer joy of that short trip, alas - but a bit too short lived

Also, I had "begged" Jon, the CEO of my company to allow me to tag along for a DMC meeting. I would give anything to go for that, I know what an eye operner that experience will be. The earlier week, he had let me sit in one of their meetings as well and I learnt so much fom just being in the company of wise men, talking about things that make me only realise how much more I have to learn- how much longer I will have to walk down this path of discovery. But I am elated and excited, nonetheless.

ACI has allowed me to learn, they have trusted me when I have not yet proven myself, they have allowed me the space to grow, to ask questions and to be me. They have made me understand how it is like to be gracious - how grateful i am to be part of this greater organization. How fantastic it is to go to work eveyday yet not feel like its having to be doing any work.

I finally understand when they say "choose something you like as a job and you don't have to ever work one day"

I am spurred on to work hard because I truly care and feel for my company. This is my company - I will defend it with my life.

2005-10-09T20:36:00.000-07:00

2005-09-30T13:14:00.000-07:00

Check this out: http://stooples.com/

Especially the catalogue section haha =)

Jules

2005-09-26T11:11:00.000-07:00

My Practical Joke
It started with a visit to Halloween shop at Plymouth Meeting Mall, where I saw this fake piece of shit for $2. I realising the potential, grabbed it quick to have fun of my innocent friends..hehe..First planting in Jaron' shower there was no effect as he discovered it fast, only after poking it with his leg first. Wasn't a lot of fun putting it in Peiling' table as well, but I hit the jackpot when I placed it in my toilet next to the shitpot and moistened with some water. Following is the exact drama that happened between Me, Eric (E) and Ziliang (ZL):

Me : Ewwww..(loudly)...What the hell is on the floor...
E: (coming towards the toilet).. What issit..Issit a rat..Issit a dead rat..Tell me..(almost shivering)
Me: Take a look yourself..
E: (peeking)...Disgusting..Who shit on the floor..That too so nicely..yucksss...
Me: Call ZiLiang, probably he knows something about it..

(We all call ZiLiang and he comes and takes a look.)

ZL: That is disgusting..(collapses on the bed)..who did that..so nicely that too..
Me: Man it stinks bad

(And the "stink" suddenly appeared in everyone' minds.)

E & ZL: Damn it stinks.
E: I will get some incense sticks..somebody' gotta clear it.
ZL: You guys play Scissor,Paper , Stone..I will be the refree..

( And then took place an intense round of Scissor, Paper, Stone with Eric playing for his life. And my 2-1 lead vanished due to the extreme play skill of Eric motivated with the disgust with the piece of poo. He won it 3-2. And followed with the most amazing monkey jumps and bear hugs and soccer style celebrations which trust me Rooney wont do if he won the World Cup.)

E: You gotta clean it now..take all the tissue paper you need..I will cover you up with incense sticks (The most amazing strategic planning - am sure influenced by army days)
Me: Ok..lets do it.

(Having lost the game, and not been able to make Eric clean it, was a setback in my plans, so my mind was overthinking of what to do next)

Me: (flinging it on Eric, as if by accident) Disgusting....ooooops
E: You threw shit on me..you threw shit on me..you threw.........

(He went on and on wiping himself with tissues cleaning the "shit".)

Me: Hey dood,( picking it up by hands now)..this aint shit..this is just a joke...

I had one of the heartiest laughs I had in days and so had ZL, as Eric turned Pink and Red, and Blue and Yellow, and every color in embarassment and fun. Trust me I had fun, and I passed the thing to Kaihong for tricks on his family which I hope he puts on his blog. As MasterCard will put it.
Fake shit.. $2
Panic in house..priceless

2005-09-10T23:59:00.000-07:00

Neeraj the Drunkard
Prof Jan was great! In fact, I think he's the best consulting professor anybody could possibly have. Friendly, caring, and humble, very handsome too haa. He invited us over for a bbq gathering at his house...and my goodness! His house is BIG. Oh, when I said big, it's doing his house a disservice. It's really BIG. Like 4 storeys high, and if he did not put a roof over he actually can have a sky garden? It's just gorgeous! Anyway, some of us have made the resolutions to become a professor at Upenn after looking at this house.

However, the topic of this blog is Neeraj the Drunkard, so I shall not bore you with all the fun stuff we did at Prof Jan's house. Gean recommended Monk's. It's a little bit crowded, but well, it's Sat night! So we squeeze ourselves into one tiny corner while waiting for our drink. Anyway, while waiting for our seats, we were standing around drinking some ale when this Mr Orh decided to steal some drinks. Needless to say he got chased out of the tavern. The tavern really seems like those tarvern in medieval age...even the music sounds like those played by bards. Only difference is we are not wearing armour. And no dwarves with flowing beards. But we have a drunkard. Here's the conversation after that sly Jaron faked Neeraj into downing 2 bottles of beer and 3 cups of some other alcohol:

N: Pass me that bottle.
J: No dude. It's empty.
N: I SAY PASS ME DAT BOTTLE.
J: ok ok! chill dude, chill!
Jaron passes the bottle. and the most amazing thing happened. Neeraj turned it over, and start hitting it like the instance when you cant get the ketchup out of the bottle. Anyway, the rest of us were laughing hilariously at this comical sight

J: Put that down! I told u it's empty.
N: (points to glass of plain water) What's this?
J: white wine dude. cheers. (Jaron gulps down that glass of plain water while that drunkard continues with his glass of beer. Girls, be careful of jaron...hee..)
N: (points at coke) What's this?
Me: that's coke dude.
N: COKE? WHO BOUGHT COKE?
Neeraj tried to pour coke into his beer
Estee: NO! NOT THE COKE!

...

time to pay....

J: dude, it's 70 bucks. take out your card.
N: 70 BUCKS! WHY SO EXPENSIVE?
aniwae, we tried to fake him into paying, but obviously he's still able to calculate while drunk...not a bad feat huh? The quality of a NCBVian...always alert even when drunk...

Aniwae, we did not manage to cheat him of his money although he claimed the next morning that he had no idea of what happened except acting like a merlion outside the tavern.

2005-09-08T17:41:00.000-07:00

Seriously, Time is giving us lots of trouble. It refuses to budge during weekdays. Yah. If u try pushing him, he just stops there and stares at you, and then he says angrily "if you push me anymore I will die of exhaustion." No dude, you cannot die on us. If you die on us i will never get back to Singapore.

Hence I have to bear with the Old Man holding his old walking stick as he shuffled along.

BUT Time sometimes decided that he needs an exercise. So every Sat and Sun that nincompop decided to jog. And worst still, sometimes he RUNS. And he does that every Sat and Sun. So my precious weekends flashed by while my weekdays seem like an eternity walk.

To add on to the misery, I sit at my desk whole day long staring at the computer screen with images of my friends and family conjured up by my imagination right in front of me. And talking to a bunch of ppl on msn with the same fate as me. It's not so bad if I have things to do to pass time, but well...

Surely but slowly, my flight back to Singapore draws near. One year ago I never expected today to be like this. One year later, I wonder what will be my fate. Will anything change at all? Can I still go back to the nights where I had suppers with my friends?

And it is apparent that everybody misses Singapore, cause the talktime on the phone gets longer and longer. Some chat the whole night before going to bed, and continue chatting after they woke up. Others spent the whole time talking to the computer through skype or msn. And I am too tired to open my mouth. So I just stared at the computer screen and think of my family and friends.

America is great. I love the weather, the people, the culture...but I have decided Singapore is better. Coz my family and my friends are there. This is my family, these are my friends...we are Singapore, Singaporeans...

But I believe if I am in Singapore, I gonna miss America. Life is such an irony. Treasure what you have now ppl. That's the advice I give.

海内存知己,天涯若比邻.

kH

2005-09-06T09:53:00.000-07:00

My Road Trip (Salem, Boston, US Open) I
(This part of the story will basically contain the incidents on the road. )

"Daddy, I am gonna drive ." ..Ok, she is just letting her parents know that she is driving.
"Hey Phebe, say a prayer for us." ..Hmmmm, must be kidding.
" Oh Lord, please bring us safely..........., Amen." Thats when the panic set. She is not kidding, She really meant when she asked us to pray. Damn it, I am so going to die. But since I cant do any better, what the hell , just buckle up and lets enjoy the ride.
Enjoy the ride I did, she drove with such grace and smooth, can put guys to shame.
After 300 tiring miles of driving, she changed drivers to come back seat and I was all praises and admire.
"Estee, you rock. You really did well. And you were not confident and everything, for what man?"
"Dude, I actually failed my driving test this Jan. Its just cos I cried to the instructor that he passed me."..
Stunned silence...
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After a fulfilling day at Boston, we decide to head the way back to Mariott at Maple street. It was simple enough, at least according to Google Maps it was. And after it took us from our house to Salem in one piece, our belief in Google had reached God-like proportions. So we start driving back, only to find what Google says, the road signs do not. " Turn right", "Turn Left", "Go straight", with six people having six hundred instructions I pity Kaihong, our poor driver.
"Neeraj, my direction man, which turn?"
"Dood, your guess is as good as mine. We are hopelessly lost in some jungle. Why the fuck, cant they make Marriott in the city"
"Hey lets follow those 2 cars in front, they sure must be heading towards highway."
"Good idea Jaron, lets do it".
And you know how not all plans have the best results. The two cars split either way at the next fork and we were as always hopelessly lost again.
"Dood, thats Maple Street, Yesssssss... we made it."
As there were cheers all around the car with sighs of relief after an hour of hopeless driving. We could finally see the Marriott logo. The huge Green MARRIOTT LOGO.
"Wait a second guys, this isnt the same Marriott...".
And six of us were struck with the same realisation together
THEY HAVE ANOTHER MARRIOTT ON ANOTHER MAPLE STREET.
Screw you Americans, have some creativity.
And for God sake fewer Marriotts, cos trust me we saw at least 10 Mariotts in 3 days.
And yeah thanks Kaihong, you have the best instincts to bring us back every time we got lost.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"We are going home..yay.."
"Kaihong be sure you take exit 3 ok..?"
"Yeah dood".
...
"Dood thats exit 3"
"Nice"
..
"DOOD.. YOU FUCKING MISSED THE EXIT. THE NEXT ONE IS 10 MILES OFF."
"Oops, so you meant me to take exit 3, I thought you showing it to me."..."Arrghhhhh..."
"Lets take exit 2, then routh 322 west, get back on 495 north and go home."
"Exit 2 must pay toll."
"Shit man, route 322 is haunted. No lights ..looks worse than the horor show movies. Fuck it lets go back north on I-95 and go back to route 3."
"Sir, can we not pay toll..cos we jus turning back?" We all sounded as innocent as we could.
"Guys, the more you use, the more you lose.hehe.."
..
Phone call from the other car.
"Guys, take exit 4 its closer we are ALMOST home. *static* "
"Cool lets go exit 4 then its 20 miles or something."
...
Call back to other car.
"So guys how from ext 4."..." Dont know we are lost ourselves".."Screw you guys".
Keep the phone down.
"Kaihong, lets go back exit 3 again. Those asses are lost themselves."
So after hours of switching between exits, paying more and more tolls everytime taking an exit and going back on the same goddamn highway, cursing Google map, cursing the other car folks..We reached home.
Thanks Kaihong, Estee Iris, Jaron for driving. Jaron, Kaihong, Estee for providing non-stop entertainment. For Ram to giving perfect directions some times.. and going hopelessly lost most..Eric for sleeping all the way and providing some dead weight on the car.. and yeah Phebe for you prayers..

(Will write more about the trip soon)

2005-09-02T08:18:00.000-07:00

ALL HAIL TO OUR ONE AND ONLY SUPERHERO - MR STARCITE MAN!

That's our StarCite man!! He's the man and never let him catch you slacking at office else he is gonna give you a big wallop! Oh btw, the kids love him!

That's where I work! My little StarCite corner!

2005-09-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

My Veblenian Nightmare
Going back to my USP modules, everytime I happen to see around, I always remember about Interpreting Consumerism. It was about different philosophies on consumerism and I keep remembering how I sucked at it, and hence hated it to the core. I remember Veblen especially, not so much because of his briliant philosophy but more due to the fact that his archaic english was too much for me. The theory that people consume so much because of social pressure, or according to him Conspicuous Consumption, and the associated Veblenian school of thought ; makes so much sense in here.Everywhere you see, there is more and more consumption and systems working to build the need for it. There are gigantuous malls here, in fact last time I visited Lowe' and found out the area to be 135000 sq feet. And there arent just one shop like this, they usually occur in clusters. And since cities cannot sustain their sizes they are built in suburbs. With people then having to drive there, means that they need massive parking lots. And trust me when I say massive, I am sure Indian airports arent as huge. It is a crazy world full of cars, because for them they are too busy. But with fuel prices rising to $3/ galleon, everyone is echoing the same angry sentiments only to not realise that they pay more for bottled water. Such irony.And coming back to what I was talking about, these people consume so much that they have no way to control. Necessity isnt the mother of invention here, Invention is the mother of necessity. I saw a walkman made to hear heart beat of babies when they are still in their mother' wombs.The trash bins here are full of stuff which you would find in homes in any other country in the world. People just outbuy themselves everytime and then throw everything. Its crazy. You wont be surprised to know that half my house has been furnished from the trash. Thats the Veblenian Nightmare one has to live in US, one cant be too cheap to not throw and one cant be too forgetful of one' roots to throw it.And yes, if any of you is still guessing who the professor for that dreaded module was - guys, he is an American.

2005-09-01T10:43:00.000-07:00

It is a long break this weekend, with Labour Day on Monday, so we have decided to visit Boston, as well as New York for the US open.

Driving there seems like a good choice. More convenient too. And thus we decided on a certain company that we are used to. However, the management has changed and now are faced with a series of problems. The price is exorbitantly high, and certain previleges are removed. Like renting a bigger vehicle.

And the worst thing that pisses many of us off, is the difference in pricing that customer service gives. It is a different price everytime we ask, and somehow they do not understand the meaning of total cost, thus excluding the hidden costs like tax and whatsoever until the day we go down to settle payments and have no choice but to take that car.

Some companies insisted on credit cards payment...and why on earth will students have credit cards? Just like other services that insisted on seeing our credit histories, which obviously we do not have since we are new here, else they just refused to provide that service. All for the sake of the guarantee that we have the ability to pay.

This brings in the question of good customer service, and the value of good marketing strategies. Indeed, in such a competitive world, a company who can provide that little extra edge of customer satisfaction would soon be speeding ahead of the rest, for the satisfied customers will recommend the company to the rest. Same for reverse. A typical case of rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.

ok back to work...and wish all of us will have a fun time at Boston this weekend.

Ps. now if someone starts a roti prata shop here, he should be damn rich by now...

kh

2005-08-31T14:06:00.000-07:00

There is a saying that goes, “You don’t miss you water till your well runs dry”. True? I concur to a certain extent. Today is day 51. That means 51 days away from home, alas, how much I miss it.

I’m not sure about the rest of you but there were things we knew were at stake when we came here. We left behind our loved ones, our friends, our homes, our houses, our societies and clubs and other relationships. Being here for one year would mean these relationships could possibly be strained, some even severed, if we did not make an effort to guard them.

I wonder how many of us counted the cost, mitigated the risk factor and factored in what was at stake? Whatever it was, we must have deemed it worth it to put everything on hold for a year and come to this unknown place.

Who, at the end of this journey can say that it is all worth it? Only time will tell. I will blog more about this when I find time. I have a ton and one things to say.

Estee

2005-08-30T07:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, it is not the dictionary, but specific acts/actions that can best define certain words.

As epitomized below, on the journey with Phebe this morning to work:-

Kindness: A bus driver getting out of his seat, unfastening the seat belt of a disabled man, pushing him towards the door, lowering the disabled ramp, and ensuring he got off safe before waving him off with a warm “You take care Sir, have a nice day.”

It’s the little acts of kindness that count. You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to figure that one out.
Kindness is not innate, it is an effort.

Fatigue: Kelly sitting in front of his laptop with his favourite online shopping page (ebay.com) with banners screaming out the words “BARGAIN”, yet there he is, nodding in front of the screen to the humdrum of the air-con, straining to keep awake. (He still has his work clothes on)

2005-08-25T14:36:00.000-07:00

I woke up to the warm fingers of the sun as they carassed my face. The daily routine of washing up ensued and at eight forty I left the apartment for work.

"Morning" I greeted the guard as I walked pass him. "Hi!" he smiled and waved to me. That's something new. Usually he will greet me with "How ya doing". Perhaps he has grown used to me, and I am also used to seeing him every morning when I walk out the door.

The cool air of the morning brushed against me as I stepped out of the building. A mixture of cold and warm as the sun reached me with his soothing fingers again. Nice feeling. A little too bright however, and I reached for my shades. Just across a few streets my office stood out tall and proud in the background.

Taking the usual path I walked across the first road to a small park. I passed by the same homeless man whom I see everyday to and fro work. Sometimes he's sitting there staring into space; other times he's asleep with his hands folded over his chest. And I grew to pity him everytime I walk past him. The trees lining up the path, whom used to have a crown of lovely bright green leaves, suddenly became spotted with bits of brown, like a forty year old man starting to age with signs of grey hair. The air seems to get colder each day, and the temperature is practically freezing whenever it rains. Signs of fall coming.

I continued my walk down the path. Reaching Logan's Square, I gazed proudly at the Singapore Flag fluttering with grace on a street post, the sign SINGAPORE below it illuminated in the morning sun. Everyday without failed I sang national songs in my heart as I passed by the flag. Across the street is a spectacular fountain that will soon be frozen in a few months' time.

Few cars go by although it's a weekday morning. There's little cars here compared to Singapore. More homeless people in Logan's Square, many of them sleeping on benches.

And as I walked, I passed by a round and jolly man, another friend I have made along the streets. He sits there everyday, admiring the surroundings as time seems to stop still for him. He greets everybody who walks by with a cheerful "morning" and watches the world rush by. And since the first time I smiled at him on my way to work, I now waved to him everytime I walk by. He will grin back with a toothless smile.

The newspapers men loitered along the streets, waving the papers at cars who would stop and get a paper from him.

Beyond Logan's square lies a building with 3 statues of a man breaking away from the wall. Now that's what arts is. Very nicely sculptured. The first one shows the man mummified into the wall; the second shows the man breaking free from the wall; and the third shows the man freed from the wall with chest forward and both hands pulled behind in an yell of ecstacy and freedom.

This is followed by Drexel college of Medicine. Situated right beside a hospital, where I stare into the transparent class of the lobby everyday. A few doctors have rushed by me occasionally, dressed in an overall of blue with white coat. They give me a feeling different from Singapore doctors. More humble, an attribute which only serves to make me respect them more.

I continued walking, and after crossing a carpark I reached a funeral parlour. Someone has decided to depart today. The road was filled with black limousines (those that you have seen in the movies) with a small flag that reads "funeral" on each of them. There are also gentlemen dressed in black suit with black shades around the funeral parlour. Talk abt respect. And there's no sounds of mahjong tiles. Or incessant dialect chatters. Just soft whispers, and an air of tranquility around. College of medicine, followed by hospital, and then the funeral parlour. Hmm.

2 more streets and I would have reached my office. The last building standing in my way is the Philadelphia Convention Centre. The walls here reminded me of those used in ancient china for protecting cities, with the word Philadelphia written in Chinese (Fei Cheng).

And thus ends my daily routine of reaching the office. I have learnt to carry a brolly with me around to ward of Miss Rain.

And after typing for so long, I just have to get this off my chest at the risk of spoiling this piece of nice passage and most probably would get humtumed by my peers: HEY KELLY! HEY JARON! HEY NEERAJ! IT ONLY TOOK ME 25 MINUTES AS I STROLLED ALONG (VERY SLOWLY) TO MY OFFICE!

2005-08-25T11:52:00.000-07:00

Sometimes, we all need a holiday. To chill, relax and have a good time. To pat ourselves on the back and say "Well done!". To let down our hair (girls) and to grow out our beards (guys). To surf the seas of surprise, to serenade in the sands of so-much-fun-land. To kick our stinky socks off and learn to laugh at ourselves, in all foolishness. To tiltillate in total timelessness. To drink booze like it's all we know how to.

Coming to BV is a learning journey, but if it's the only thing that we have come here for is to imbibe all the contacts we can make and nothing else, then we have los the essense of a wholistic experience.

My point? Work like you've never worked before and party like it's your last day alive. That, to me is the BV esperience.

CHEERS, bottoms up and one more tequilla pop please :)

2005-08-24T11:11:00.000-07:00

Today marks day 44 in Phila-this-place-is-awesome-delphia.

I woke up to the silly alarm clock ringing hysterically into my ears. How much I hate alarm clocks, yet how much I love them. There is this tug of war love cum hate relationship I have with my alarm clock. I wonder how unproductive I would be without its existence. Yet I wonder how many wrinkles less I would have on my forehead with them around.

My bosses are away on a holiday to Canada, how awesome. Yet the office is buzzing with activity. Mark, out chief of information officer has brought his daughter, Katie along with him and she is seated in the conference room watching “the Iron Giant”. It seems to me here, “Katie” is the favourite name of choice. Jon, the president of ACI, where I work, has his daughter named Kate as well. And we have a colleague in the Programming department with a similar name.

Talking about cartoons, I am reminiscing the day when I WAS young. Cartoon network, Disney channel, Dexter and Didi, Nickelodeon, transformers, my little pony, care bear and smurf. Seems like eons ago. Now the only cartoons I indulge in is “Happy tree friends”, not very becoming, to say the least.

Aren’t we all growing up too fast? The irony of it all is I have always wanted to grow up. When I was 16, I wished to be 21 and now that I’m 21, I wish so hard that I could “grow down” to the time when I was sweet 16.How I wish I could remain child-like forever, without being childish. I would never want to grow up if that meant losing the “child” in me. You see, there is a fine line with being childish and child-like. Vague, but undeniably there.

The office is quiet, save for the sporadic shuffling of feet behind my desk. I have a ton of work to do for Liza, my superior. I appreciate the fact that she is so very organized and so far, she has been extremely understanding towards my plight that when I started working, I had abso-freaking-lutely no experience in this field whatsoever. She has been very patient with me. Likewise, Jon, the president of the company has been teaching me about this field during our weekly meetings together. I am very appreciative of the fact that he trust me with much of this confidential information and I’m eager to proof myself of value to the company.And also, I am enthused by the fact that we're the ULTIMATELY coolest company alive. Since we started work 6 weeks ago, we have had 2 parties, alcohol free flow. The people here know how to work and and have a good time as well. When they party, they PARTY! When it comes to work, everyone knows their place in this organization.

I feel truly blessed to be placed here at ACI. I love it here! The only bane is getting used to waking up in the morning, my ritualistic fistfight with my alarm clock.I miss home, very much still.

Mummy and Esther are in America now, as I blog. Esther just reached a couple of days back. She will be studying at University of Michigan and mummy will be with her for the first week to make sure things are nicely settled. It is great because Michigan and Philadelphia are in the same time zone, so we can talk as when we like. I am concerned for mummy and daddy because they have never been left unbothered by us daughters. How they will miss us.

The air is getting crisp here and the mornings are colder, a sign that autumn is fast approaching. Even the birds are starting to sing a different tune, a matter of perception, perhaps. I am looking forward to this change in season. This morning and Phebe and I were going to work, we were hit by bone chilling wind. The wonders of how one day can be warm yet the next chilly.

How the seasons creep up on you like a shadow in the night. There are some things we take for granted, these are truly the more delicate things in life. Tarry a while sometimes, to smell the flowers of watch a leaf fall from a tree, or even pick up a dandelion by the pavement side and watch the seeds disperse in the winds under your breath. How sometimes we are too caught up in the hustle and bustle of city life to appreciate the truly precious things mother earth has bestowed upon us.

The inexorability of happenstance hits me, like a silver bullet through the heart of dracula, some things are out of our control. But, truly, the best things in life are free.

Like a caterpillar emerging from its cocoon, this transient and subtle metamorphosis can be likened to each one of us interns here. Slow yet steady, we will grow from the naïve young cubs that we now are into the matured interns that we all hope to become.

Like a true blue ACSians, I say, “The Best is Yet to Be”…

-eStee

2005-08-23T17:10:00.000-07:00

Hi guys! I'm in the office now, taking a break from the mountain-load of stuff that piled on me. It has been 1.5 weeks since I started work. I can still remember my first step on my first official working day into the office (I met my colleagues on my 2nd day in Philly just to get orientated).

me: Hello everybody! Morning!
Tze: Hi Kaihong! You are placed on this project. Julie will talk to you more abt it after she get back...

Sob. And I was not even shown to my desk yet. Work's stressful, and yet fulfilling. There's so much things to learn here, and I have gotten used to the lifestyle here. Every moment is a treasured memory...apart from the terrible flight that I went through which still gives me nightmare. The mere thought of it makes The Exorcist seems like a comedy.

Ok back to work. Wanted to type more but have a project to rush. And I wrote this passage so that I can be the 2nd one to blog. haha. See ya guys, and like what Estee said to me when I arrived, 3 times in total, "WELCOME TO PHILLY!"

kaihong

2005-08-22T13:22:00.000-07:00

“A small step for man but a giant leap for mankind.” How apt, I think to myself as I fight back the heaviness of my ever droopy eyelids. As if on auto pilot, I break up in to a chain of incessant yawns as I attempt to stretch my legs for the first time in, what – 24 hours. I had been to hell and back, and survived! The journey had begun, but it was not as I imagined.

For a year, I had imagined myself all dressed up prettily, hair bunched up in a pink scrungie, nose powdered and all, with a spring in my step (and like Reese Witherspoon, a nice cute miniature pincture leashed to my right hand would be bonus) and a fluffy soft boa-ed clutch bag, walking with fellow batch mates out of the airport. The air, I imagined, would be sprinkled with a light but distinct scent of old Irish hazelnut coffee – my favourite.

It was, to me horror, unlike anything I envisioned ---

It seemed like only yesterday that I touched down in Philadelphia, the land where love, supposedly flourishes. “The Land of Brotherly love”, it is better known as. In the twinkling of an eye, today marks day 42.

Yes, I have been here for 42 days, away from the comfort of home, and the solace of friends and family, alike. It is almost like being transported into a whole new portal, being sucked into a vortex through time, space and matter. This will be home for the next 1 year and my new friends here will be family. This one year, we will eat together, live together (hopefully, not in a too sty-like fashion), travel together, fight together and most importantly, tolerate each other’s crap. This is day 42 and I am glad to say that despite the hell-ish trip,

I LOVE IT HERE!!! (as u can see Phebe n I are having an ALOHA time here!)

My feet felt as though they had weights chained to them and the 5 of us from the first batch cent here ( Phebe, Neeraj, Eric, Peiling and I) trudged wearily down the baggage claim aisle, which, now abashedly as I admit, had me cursing relentlessly under my stale breath. “Damn these *$^*(&_&%% bags, I should have traveled lighter”.

You see, not like I would want to drag out the sepulture of my past and air it for all to see, but I’m not sure how many of you experienced this while packing for this trip, but my mother dearest had secretly stashed “barang barangs” into my bag when either when a) I was out with my freinds or b) I was sleeping or c) somehow she managed to distract me surreptitiously with her flawless skills while she slipped what she notioned as “necessities” into my MPV-sized luggage cases. (She had developed and perfected this "steath skill" after 20 over years of marriage to my father where she developed the art of siphoning money from daddy to buy her "I-could-rob-a-bank-and-get-this-much-dough"facial treatments without his knowledge -- A skill that all women should be genetically programmed with)

The good thing was this -- I didn’t know all these yet until I unpacked a few hours later to find my luggage exploding with packets of Milo, cotton wool, cotton bud, cotton pads, cotton whatevers, soap powder, towels, moisturizers and a decades supply of aspirin (which if I do a headcount now, eating 1, 3 times a day, would take me about 189.6666 days to complete) – you get my drift. That was why my bag seems like it was loaded with Sadaam’s WMD and caused me to be eyeballed by the layers of security people as we trickled like drops of water through a leaky faucet down the bottle neck-ed checkpoints.

The 5 of us were almost half-dead, hair tousled looking so “unglam” that if you looked up the dictionary under the word “hideous”, you’d probably find a caption of us beside it. Having been in flight and transit for a total for 24 hours, well, I’ll spare you the details on what we smelt like! That was one WHOLE day of sitting down, eating, sleeping and attempting to watch the extremely unpalatable in flight movies in a cramped up cabin with no leg room whatsoever, imagine that! To add insult to injury, the horizontally challenged flight attendant walking up and down the row had apparently doused herself with a lorry load of eu de toilette, whenever she waddled past, I would awake to the sent of being in a forest, drowning in the nectar of a thousand roses! To compound the matter, half the time I remember myself trying to pop my ears back from the pressure!

It was a horrible start to this journey I had been waiting to embark on for the last year or so. But, grateful still I had 4 other people who smelt like me and looked as “oompaloompa-ish” as I did amongst the huge African Americans lumbering around the airport.

And so here, I am in Philadelphia, 42 days later, recounting the “flight” ( I have inverted comma-ed this word because “flight” always reminds me of “flights of fancy” – something it was the flipside of) here. This is only the beginning of a long and arduous road ahead – pain, sorrow, laughter, hard work, Russell Peters, Little Britains etc all rolled up into one massive ball of FUN and LEARNING.

We have a whole year to look forward to and this is only the beginning. No one ever said it was going to be easy. Let’s make it together, come what may. We have come this far together. Being here alone is a dream come true for me, despite the aching pangs of missing home.

We have chosen the path less taken, this year all of us will go through heaven and hell as one, so live with it! : ) We have so much to learn from our attachments!

A little song by Donna Lewis dedicated to all of you –

At the beginning

We were strangers, starting out on a journey
Never dreaming, what we’d have to go through
Now here we are, I’m suddenly standing
At the beginning with you
No one told me I was going to find you
Unexpected, what you did to my heart
When I lost hope, you were there to remind me
This is the start
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I’ll be there when the world stops turning
I’ll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

We were strangers on a crazy adventure
Never dreaming, how our dreams would come true
Now here we stand, unafraid of the future
At the beginning with you
And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I’ll be there when the world stops turning
I’ll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

Knew there was somebody, somewhere
A new love in the dark
Now I know my dream will live on
I’ve been waiting so long
Nothing’s gonna tear us apart

And life is a road that I wanna keep going
Love is a river, I wanna keep flowing
Life is a road, now and forever, wonderful journey
I’ll be there when the world stops turning
I’ll be there when the storm is through
In the end I wanna be standing
At the beginning with you

Will continue the post trip blog when I’ve got more time! Till then, toodle loo! Estee signing off!

P/s: Thanks mummy for sneaking stuff into my bag, I NEEDED THEM!! And thanks to all the rest of the other mummies sneaking stuff into the other’s bag! I know for a fact you were just as grateful as I was for those added pounds – it’s was well worth it, mummy knows best! : )