Johnston Hall. That's actually a residence hall.(You can't see this pipe behind that's emitting smoke from goodness knows where but it doesn't matter.)
Like most parts of Canada, there're squirrels. The cute little things.
Altogether now: Awwwwwwwww~After some snowfall (of maybe 5cm?)
The big "field" in front of Johnston. I made this pic b/w because it was already gloomy anyway.War memorial hall - one of my lecture venues! I should try to take a picture of the lecture itself =D
I can't believe we have lessons in the prettiest buildings! (The prettiest buildings in nus... uh, where?) The university is pretty small, so we walk from lecture to lecture. It'd probably be more comfortable if it was warmer, but I came to Canada for the snow, so I shan't complain too much =)School food is expensive by sg standards but reasonable by local standards, and its actually good.
The university is about as old as Sg is, according to K (my housemate) - it was officially founded in 1964. I think some parts of it are actually older (e.g. the OVC), but I'm too lazy to check now.
Why I love lectures here: because students actually actively participate when lecturers ask questions (in the -raises hand- pick me! pick me! way, even in science lectures!) Its just so cool, and lecturers actually are entertaining and they do try to get to know students by name. (I'm not seen as a statistic!) Lectures are 2/3 times a week and they're only 50 mins long each time, which is so much better than 2hr slots. Labs are 2-3 hours long? (After urops that's crazily short) And the best part is, I'm no longer a silent suffering minority as a left hander! Every lecture venue I've been in either have tables a la LT26 in nus, but will more space inbetween rows so students in the middle don't have to make the entire row stand up if they want to get in/go out, OR all the aisle 2 seats in every row have left handed desks. It melts my heart, seriously. And I just love the course content.
Guelph is ranked so much lower than nus in terms of university rankings (although it is quite prestigious in Canada), but learning is so much more fun, the students here love the place so much, and its not difficult to see why.
The not so good thing is: textbooks are expensive. My developmental psychology textbook costs CAD$150 thereabouts per new copy, excluding taxes. 2nd hand ones go for about CAD$113, before taxes. Human embryology textbook costs CAD$97, before taxes, and there are no 2nd hand ones available, because its a new edition. Coursepacks (binded books of photocopied material) can cost up to CAD$42. Printing notes cost CAD$0.10 per page.
I love snow, I hate slush.
The view from my room window one snowy morning. My residence looks like this btw... East village! Its new - built in what, 2005? (See! New buildings don't always have to look futuristic-ally ugly!!)
I was late for lectures on Friday because it was just so beautiful, I had to stop and take pictures. (The 3rd and 4th pictures at the top of this post) Oh, and I took a wrong turn too. Heehee.
After class, I made one snow angel! Okay one is pathetic, but the snow got down my pants and I didn't feel like lying in the snow again. Plus aisyah didn't want to join me =(
See my bag and file at the bottom of this picture? I happily shoved snow into them without realising while enthusiastically creating my snow angel, so the pages in them (including my $10 coursepack (*&^%$#%^&*) are now crinkly.With someone else's snowman, which was standing in the middle of the field.
High 5 brother! He needs a scarf.We randomly got someone to take a picture for us. Heehee.
This is the student diary. Maybe nussu should look at this and rethink the ugly planners they come up with every year.
One snowflake on my furry glove =)
On Wednesday, there was this LINK/exchange students get-together at the university centre. And I saw this person with the tag: Singapore on it. The last sem2 exchange student (whom IRO refused to put us into contact despite emails - very efficient administration for OWN students, they have.) from arts!! Yay!! And after exchanging information, we realised that she's (kelly) actually staying in the next house from mine, and if I put a hole in my wall, I could walk into her room. Its simply insane - we were wondering where she was (if she really did come) and all the while she was literally next door to me!!! And I also met this girl(rita) from hong kong whom I was randomly talking to who was also waiting to see the education advisor for exchange students on our first day of school, and we exchange contacts too! Yay new friends =P
Anyway, rita and I went to look for Benny, who's the person in charge of international student insurance and probably something else but I can't remember, and 1. knowing that we were from sg/hk; 2. him being m'sian (he demanded that I recite the national anthem to him when in his office -_-), he offered to show us this place with very good cantonese food, and asian foodmart in downtown guelph. So we met him at the farmer's market on Saturday morning (which was also darned cool), and the asian market was the best! Okay its pretty small, but you could get so much random Asian stuff in there =D (no kaya though, darn)
Oh, before I forget, I locked myself out of my room today, so I ran over to the check-in desk and enroute I could like, break pieces of ice off my 30-seconds-ago-was-damp hair. It was -8 celsius. Shall strive not to do anything this dumb (lock out, go out with wet hair) in this winter season.
Because as exchange students, we take pictures in the stupidest places, at the stupidest times.
3 sg-reans lol
Don't ask me what we were doing. I told you we do stupid things - as long as the cold didn't get to us.
Tra-la-la.
So I came back after some time today and tried to make dinner at the EXACT SAME TIME as K and H, my 2 other housemates. (The 3rd one - S, apparently goes home on weekends) Clearly the kitchen isn't that big, and so I just stood in a corner because you simply cannot have 3 people at the stove at the same time. H's boyfriend just happily pulled up a chair and watched the general pademonium in the kitchen. I don't know why my vegetables are so dry - I remember having loads of gravy the other time, and I've been cooking it in the exact same way. -_-" And oh, frying garlic smells nice. Alas, I am in no position to share any recipes until I figure out why on earth do my dishes dry up on the pan. But its all good, because I finally got to chit-chat with K! And its clubs day on mon-tues, and ivcf here has cg on wed, so hopefully I'd know more people =)
Church tmr with rita and cynthia (her very bubbly and friendly housemate). Not alone, Yay!
