Happy Australian Day

The skies are clear and very blue. From the Gannett Center Library, I look out and the view is fantastic. From the top of South Hill, you can see downtown Ithaca in the valley and Cayuga Lake in the far distance.

But it is deceiving. Step outside, and you immediately look for the next building to seek the warmth indoors. The temperature is -13 degree Celsius. Oh, but that is not the culprit. The windchill measures at -24 degree Celsius. Yes. The wind makes life miserable. I have had to reattach the fleece lining to my coat. And I can not feel my ears and nose anymore once I step outside. They say chewing gum helps to get your face muscles moving and keeps your face from getting frozen.

It is Australian Day today and we were at Zack’s apartment for dinner. The Aussies were cooking. It seems beer is an easy condiment for cooking, they just throw it into the stir-fry. Before this, the only beer I had in food was in beer-batter fish and chips. It was a fun night, which included cricket out in the snow, and just sitting around talking and listening to Aussie music. Jennie and Canan got quite excited when The Final Countdown started playing. They’re really proud about their Swedish music. Maybe I can introduce Electrico to them some time. And maybe even Stefanie Sun, if they are up for it.

We’ve got a chocolate party by the fire on Monday for all international students at the Muller Chapel. And we’re planning an international dinner on Valentine’s Day where we each cook a traditional dish from home. I think I’ll prepare chicken curry and microwavable roti prata. Rowie suggested chilli crab and chicken rice but I don’t know if I’m up to it. Send me recipes!

School has started and there are lots of readings piling up already. Which explains the shorter and maybe less coherent posts that will follow, maybe? I’m taking five classes this semester and they have been pretty fun so far. News Reporting & Writing, Global Flow of Information, Intro to Global Studies, Screenwriting, and Non-Fiction Film Theory. IC has some of the best teachers and resources here, and I think this is going to be a very good semester indeed. I feel a lot more motivated to put in effort because the classes are more participatory and there’s a higher percentage for discussions in class than compared to NTU. Well, you can’t possibly talk in class without doing the readings cos you’ll be ignorant about a lot of things so that’s my motivation.

Textbooks here are so expensive. I have spent close to $400 on books alone! Non-Fiction Film Theory has 12 texts! Need I say more?

It stopped snowing for about a day or two. I saw green grass for the first time since I got here. The icicles hanging from the second floor started melting. And then last night, it started snowing again, intermittently. I think that’s how it’s gonna be for some time and check this out – tomorrow, it’s expected to be minus sixteen degrees C.

Today in Global Flow of Info class, one student said Globalization is Westernization is Americanization. And Disney, MacDonalds, MTV popped out of everyone’s mouths. I decided to say the world is shrinking. Have I mentioned that I get blank stares when I say I’m from Singapore? Now I introduce myself as I’m Jeremy, from Singapore, which is in Asia.

Forgive the jumbled thoughts. Classes have started.

Cold.

Friday 1/19/07

Today, with full resolve to settle our cell phones, Rishi and I headed back to the mall to sign up with Cingular Wireless. Two evenings ago, we tested the SIM cards with our phones and it worked. But today it didn’t and I’m not sure why. So we decided to buy a phone each, which was reasonable. I got a Sony Ericsson Z300a for $40 and bought a value of $25 pay-as-u-use. For some reason, I don’t know why, I had a value of $40 stored in it.

After that I stayed on to finish up whatever other essentials I needed to buy, while Rishi headed back to rest because he’s still not feeling too good. Bought bedlinen, toiletries, detergent so I can finally do laundry, and Nivea body lotion. I tell you, the body lotion works a lot better than some French one I was goaded into buying at West Mall’s Guardian pharmacy. And for half the price some more. Also bought multivitamins but the tablet is so big! Mom, if I chop them up, do they still work?

On my way back, I passed the public library and the city hall. It was snowing some. Dropped my bags, whipped out the under-utilized camera to snap some photos of the snow. And I gotta learn the details about the shutter speed. So that I can set it to slow to capture the snowflakes. Haha. Now, in these photos, you can’t see them. You wait ok, by the end of winter, maybe I’ll be a slightly more decent photographer. A little girl was running up and down catching snowflakes on her tongue. Great photojourn opportunity but too bad, it’s me you’re talking about.

Anyway here are some photos of the exterior of my apartment. Red brick building, five floors, bottom floors are twin-sharing, and higher floors have four to six people in an apartment. My apartment is more like a studio apartment cos it’s the beds next to the study desks, the sofa and TVs and the kitchenette. A door leads to the walk-in wardrobe and bathroom. It’s quite a wonderful sight to see the trees bare and the ground white. Something we don’t see back home. I was talking to Naomi, a Japanese exchange student, about the snow and she said her university is north of Japan and snow is common. Well, I could really end up liking this very much. This snow.

1/20/07

Speaking about the cold, today I made a booboo. Went to Wegman’s to buy groceries and I was alone since I’m the only one who has a kitchen. So I happily boarded the Tcat and made my way there. Sidetracking, I’m very satisfied with my grocery shopping and can’t wait to go back there, more on Wegman’s in future. After I was done, I saw from afar that the bus had just left but I decided to wait for the next one out in the bus stop. You see, the bus I was waiting for comes twenty minutes past the hour, and only once an hour, which I wasn’t aware of. So I was waiting alone, wondering how long the bus would take and also why wasn’t there anyone else waiting for the bus as well. Not sure how long I waited but I think it was about 40mins and I gave up and headed back in. One, I was wondering how come the bus wasn’t coming and thinking maybe I was at the wrong bus stop. Two, I was freezing out there. My fingers were beyond numb, and shaking uncontrollably. Three, passersby I approached had no clue about the bus route because they all drive.

So I went back into the store, grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and asked for help. The lady said the bus comes every hour and that I just missed it. Meaning I froze out there for so long and when I decided to come in, the bus came! So silly! She suggested walking and proceeded to talk me through a shortcut. Didn’t sound that complicated but maybe I’ll try that when spring comes.

Temperatures dropped back to -10 degree C. But come Thursday, it is expected to get warmer and should rise above freezing point for the first time! Can’t wait for that to happen, heh. But windchill is the culprit. It’s out to make my life difficult. As it is, I’m already getting numbness everywhere, especially on my face cos it’s not covered up. And I have higher than average cheek surface area some more!

In other unrelated matters, my roommate has returned from the winter break. He’s a junior (third year undergraduate) majoring in film. He’s from Boston, so he just drove six hours back to IC. Nice guy from first impressions.

Anyway, the Tcat bus drivers here have incredible service. They are friendly and greet everyone with a “How’s your day” or “How are you doing”, they wait for you to sit down before they drive off, they are especially patient with the older folks, and they are instantaneous at offering assistance all the time. SBS drivers should come here for internship!

Wednesday 1/17/07

 

Woke up early today, around 4am. Still jet-lagged. First thing to do is wait for Rishi to contact me, who’s supposed to have arrived last night around 11pm. I don’t really want to spend too much time in the apartment because I have just flown 20 hours around the world just to be here! It’d be such a waste to be holed up in the room. Only thing is, it’s cold outside plus my room is very cozy so it’s alright for now.

Thanks to Kristia, I managed to set up Internet in the apartment, but I have to pay for it. It’s quite silly cos the free connection offers 64kbps which is too slow for comfort. Upgraded it to something higher at a cost but it’s worth it.

Received Rishi’s message that he was at his room and had bad news. Upon reaching Detroit, he was switched onto another flight along with ten others because the flight to Ithaca was apparently too heavy. So they were put on another flight to Binghamton, which is an hour’s drive away from Ithaca, and given a complimentary round trip coach ticket from Northwest. Long story short, he shared a cab with others here and the driver dropped him off in the middle of nowhere. He had to take another cab to IC, and his luggage were still at Ithaca airport. So he had to go collect them.

After hearing this, I felt extremely blessed. Such a great reminder of God’s grace and I really see Him at work at the little things around me. Everything has gone so smoothly so far, that I can’t think of any hiccups at all.

Rishi managed to get his luggage and he picked me up in the cab to get to his room. Cabs are really expensive here. From the airport to my apartment, it cost me $17 and there were three others on the cab going towards Cornell, so he earned about $60 from us. For half an hour’s work! Rishi’s cab cost $30 to and from the airport.

We explored the IC administrative buildings today. Popped by the Center of Health Sciences which houses the International Office to say hi to Diana. Also went to the Health Center to drop off our health forms, and made our ID cards. We also explored the library which is in the Gannett Center. You realize I’m writing this in detail because I’m trying to remember the building names. We had lunch at the Campus Center food court. I had a grilled chicken sandwich with fries. The thing about the sandwiches or burgers here is they come with a lot of vegetable toppings, like the usual lettuce, tomato, onion and pickles. Lots of them. The onions are too strong for my liking, so it shall just be lettuce from now on.

Rishi and I decided to head out to the Commons to run some errands. We thought it was good to attempt walking there at least once in the winter so we braved the -10 degC weather and walked for about half an hour to the Commons. Not bad I must say, given that it was our first day there and we had no idea where the Commons were. Along the way, saw many typical American houses with a porch on the front, a chimney and garage. Everything is covered with ice and it is really beautiful to look at. It was too cold to whip out my camera though, so no photos there. Maybe another time.

First stop was HSBC to set up an account. Then we hopped across the street for our first cup of Starbucks! It’s fantastic to stand in minus ten weather and sip delicious caramel macchiato while waiting for a bus. We took the Tcat bus service 30 to Pyramid Mall which took some time passing through Cornell U before reaching. At Pyramid Mall, there’s Target, which is great for the household items. At the mall, there’s also Abercrombie, Gap, American Eagle, Borders, Old Navy, and a cinema. The things here aren’t as expensive as I anticipated them to be.

At HSBC, the bank lady and I were chatting and she said this winter has been very mild compared to previous years and today happened to be the coldest day so far at -14degC. I told her today was our first day here and she joked that it must have decided to give us a welcome.

First impression of Cornell – it’s huge! And you take forever to go through it on the bus. The academic buildings look very modern. There are a lot of international students here and we ran into some at the mall. Chatted with two French girls who are here doing graduate studies at Cornell, studying management. It’s easy for international students to click with more common topics to talk about. One of the girls’ brother did his MBA at NTU and she came round in 2005 to visit him. Talk about a small world.

Thursday 1/18/07

Today was International Orientation but I was late for it because I called maintenance in to check on the heater. I suspected it wasn’t working. The one in the toilet was because I could feel the heat but the one outside didn’t seem to be working. It had been freezing cold the past couple of nights, which shouldn’t be the case. So the guys from maintenance came in and fixed it. Said some one mysteriously turned off the dial that allows the water to flow. So now it works and I’m happy I don’t have to wake up with numb fingers and toes.

I went off to join in the orientation and met Jiahui, who’s a Singaporean doing graduate studies here in communications. She was from SCI too, and was here on exchange! So she decided to come back here for grad studies. She invited Rishi and I to join her and the other Singaporeans from Cornell for Chinese New Year.

It’s a really small group of international kids here on exchange. There was a Norwegian, three Aussies, two Swedes, an Indian, a Japanese and two of us Singaporeans. I think there are a few more coming in tomorrow. Went to set up our email accounts and tomorrow we have an appointment with our academic mentors to discuss classes. And a welcome party for all international students at Muller Chapel on 29th.

Rishi wasn’t feeling too good so today we just stayed indoors. We missed dinner at the food court cos they closed at 6.30pm! So we ordered Chinese delivery haha! It was exactly like how you see it on TV. The food was served in those white paper holders and the food was not too bad actually. I had beef bee-hoon and Rishi had chicken fried rice. And there were fortune cookies too! Since I’m staying in an apartment, I have decided to cancel my meal plan and maybe cook more? I think I rather have more flexible eating habits than to be obligated to eat at the dining hall and it is probably healthier to cook as well. Shall put the fridge and stove to good use.

It’s coming to about four days since I left Singapore and I don’t know if this is wrong but I don’t feel homesick. My apartment is more comfortable than my own home and even though I only have Rishi around, it’s alright so far. Was telling Lianya that I feel at home here and very comfortable with life so far. But one thing is true, I cannot get ahead of myself yet. After all, this is still the honeymoon period and I haven’t started classes yet. Which is a good thing. Only thing I sorely missed out on is seeing little Kaela. By the time I get back, she’ll be a bubbly six-month-old already!

Diana at the orientation today talked much sense. She was from Bulgaria herself and has since settled here in US. She reminded us to keep an open mind to our experiences here and be flexible. One thing that really excited me was how she said the experience here will change us. Having traveled half the world to get here for most of us was an experience in itself. And what will come in the following weeks will really shape us as a person and might possibly change how we see things. I’m just going to wait for classes to start to see how communications here works out for me, given Ithaca College’s massive reputation for broadcast. Like I said, it’s still the honeymoon period and the novelty of being here may wear off and I may actually long for home. We’ll see.

Tomorrow we are thinking of going back to the mall to get our Cingular wireless phoneline because it is so important to have a local line, if not, it is simply too expensive! The news says the weather is going to get more extreme because of winds from Lake Ontario and there’s expected to be about 5 inches of snow coming our way.. Can’t wait for more snow!

 

I’m here! And it’s freezing!
Yes I am safe and sound, having arrived in Ithaca at 4pm local time yesterday. It’s been a long long journey here, about 19 hours of flight alone, not including the time waiting for connecting flights.

Very thankful and touched to see the folks sending me off at the airport, despite the unearthly hours. Photos of send-off to come.

You know after crossing the customs, you feel ‘this is it, the long wait is finally over and you are on your own now’. It hits you almost immediately and I felt this, knowing that I have to be extra careful now, no parents to look out for me anymore. So I really respect other students who are out on their own, students like me on exchange, but more so students who have been doing it since they were 19.

The flight from Changi to Narita, Tokyo was good. The plane was only about a third full so there was some much needed quiet to catch up on sleep. Entertainment was good though, personal screen that allows you to choose from any movie. I watched three – The Queen, One Last Kiss and Bootmen, but all halfway till I fell asleep.

Upon reaching Narita, I bid farewell to Justin and Jane, they’re going towards Minneapolis then towards Maryland, and Rishi, who I will meet in Ithaca later. It was a mad rush to get to my connecting flight bound for Detroit. Too tight for comfort. Gate 24, finally managed to find it.

really long queue at Narita

 

The flight from Narita to Detroit wasn’t quite so fun though. The flight was full, and full of North Asians. It was noisy. And many bawling kids around me, which added to my frustration. It was an 11 hour flight to Detroit that flew over the Pacific and Canada. It would probably have been more bearable had it had the same personal TV screen. Plus I was quite far from the screen so there was no entertainment other than the in-flight jazz station that was on loop. So thankful to finally reach Detroit.

 

 

the neon colored lighting art along connecting tunnel at Detroit

 

It feels great to finally be in USA. You know how today’s generation have heavy Western influences growing up, we know so much about USA. Well, right now the experience has finally become real. A face-to-face, off TV experience.

 

Landing at Ithaca domestic airport, small control tower

It’s been snowing non-stop since I reached. Light snow though, nothing too unbearable. Settled into the apartment, though my roommate is still not around. The room is really nice and well-equipped, very cosy and comfortable. But I need to get to the supermarket soon! Have lots of things to buy, some essentials, and some to make life more comfortable.

God is really great. People have been so kind and willing to help and I feel that these people are God-sent. Diana from the international office has been a fantastic lady so far. She drove me from where I collected the keys to my apartment, helped me with getting in and also gave me a bag of tidbits, fruits and drinks to tide myself over before I get around. Kristia, a Jamaican international student who’s the residential rep from another block dropped by after Diana called her to help me install the internet. And this is such a blessing because the Internet is very important into getting connected and getting very precious information. Also Zack, the student body president who was supposed to be one of my housemates till I was reassigned. Well, he’s another source of important help and advice that’s been very appreciated.

 

 

 

 

Ready or not, here I come.

I’ll be leaving in about a week’s time and I’m still not packed! The renovation was an excuse for preparations being at a standstill but now that most of it is over, no more excuses.

As the days get lesser, it’s starting to hit home just how near it is. In a matter of days, I will be thousands of miles away from home in a new environment, and surprises are almost certain to pop up everyday when you least expect it.

Preparations for this trip have been many and started way back in say, October? From selecting the overseas university to application to visa. It’s been quite a journey. The funny thing is, no matter how prepared I am for this trip, or how many precautions I’ve taken, or back up plans in place, as long as I am not mentally prepared, I am not ready. So hard to control, this mind of mine.

As people have pointed out, I’m usually cool and calm about things, even when situations get tricky or difficult. So when I tell you I’m not sure how I feel now, it is something. It’s kind of ambivalent in a way. Cos I am very excited and I can’t wait, but at the same time, I’m also quite ‘chill’ about it.  Some days I wake up and feel ‘I can’t believe it is finally happening!’ and others I feel ‘Ok, so I’m leaving. Ok.’

Alvin and Yan Hui in Hong Kong, Kok Wee in Atlanta, Weiyi in North Carolina, Justin and Jane in Maryland, Sara in Missouri, Yang in Boston, Lian Ya in Seattle, Geok Shan, Liyi and Chrong in Beijing, Kenneth in Gujarat (India). Rishi and I in NY.