A Kuhanic World

Greetings!

My spring break’s finally over, and so is my days of blogging here. No, I have not decided to discontinue blogging.. I have simply grown tired of the many problems I’ve faced blogging using Friendster Blogs. Thus, I’ve created a NEW BLOG, which I feel has a simpler URL as well as a better layout. Notifying you guys of updates (which was automatic with Friendster) is gonna be a lil’ more difficult, but I’m hoping a display message on MSN would do.

So, this is ultimately my last post here.. What better way to end it than with one of the few phrases I’ve picked up from the anime Bleach.. Heh!
Hasta aquí..

Hey there again!

As I was saying, the last couple of weeks have been pretty eventful..
The semester’s been going okay.. I decided on just 15 credits as I failed to
get into the Chinese Literature class. Organic Chemistry II is giving me the
toughest time among all the subjects, and Thermodynamics isn’t too far off
either. My Intro to IPRO (Introduction to Interprofessional Project, a 1-credit
hour class where we aid a Chemical Engineering IPRO project and learn to use
HYSYS) project involves mitigation and sequestration of carbon dioxide – an issue
that has been of grave importance ever since we began noticing the alleged effects
of global warming. Working on the team is pretty fun, and is a real learning
experience for me..

I’ve had my midterms during the past 2 weeks, which went ok
I guess (I hope.. wait, lemme rephrase.. I PRAY!). There have also been
interesting developments in the ‘soap opera.’ It’s finally drawn to an end with
me realizing that my instincts were ALWAYS RIGHT and that I was foolish to
doubt them.. It hurts to not learn of it directly.. but anyway.. now I know for
sure that for the rest of my life, no matter how much I try to repress it - there
will always be contempt within my heart for 2 people.. though I have decided to
just endure the next couple of years around them and treat them as normal
friends (probably more like acquaintances really)..

There was also my birthday a week ago.. I was given a
surprise party as the clock struck 12 a.m. It feel’s great to finally be 21!! For
once, I consumed a substantial amount of alcohol (Jack Daniels and some beer),
and my head felt pretty heavy. I got a nice little Zen MP3 player from my
friends as well. It really was quite nice, but it brought me back memories of
last year’s birthday… a time up to when everything in IIT seemed perfect.

Well, there’s still a good few days left in this spring
break. I was contemplating ending my vegetarian days during this break, but then
realized that really wouldn’t make much sense. After all, being vegetarian is
pretty healthy, ain’t it? Now then, that’s all I have for now.. oh wait.. did I
mention I have also become a Bleach junkie over this semester?? Guess not..

There, now I’m done.. Sayonara!

Alrighty.. it’s spring break finally.. finally gt some room
for another update.. heh. Last couple of weeks have been truly interesting..
(seriously.. no kidding! :p) But before I get to that, I gotta finish up my
update on my winter break.. hahaha.. (again.. long due!)

So, we finally got back from New York, and got some well deserved rest.
Little did we know of what was about to hit us.. You see, the residence the
four of us (Ziyu, Julian, KH and me) were staying in has two occupants
generally. It’s very spacious, thus one of the occupants (Reggie) decided to
rent the place out to us for the break. The other half of the place belonged to
Ronald, who was staying with us. He was fine with us staying there, and we
figured it’d be ok as Reggie told us he’s really nice and wouldn’t cause us any
trouble. While preparing dinner, we notice a pan on the stove. We figured Ronald
had cooked some food earlier and left it there, so we just left it assuming he
would clean it up (No idea what food it was because it was closed with a plate,
and we didn’t bother to check it out). However, to our amusement (not sure if ‘amusement’
is really the right word here..), the pan was still lying there as we were
about to prepare dinner the following day! As we lifted the plate, a foul odor
of epic proportions surrounded us.. The stench was unbearable.. we couldn’t
cook with that thing lying there, so we decided to clear it (all the while
swearing and cursing Ronald for putting us through that). We figured he must
have forgotten, so we decided to put the issue to rest.

It didn’t end there.. you see.. Ronald didn’t have a laptop,
so he started borrowing our laptops. I was generally willing to borrow him my
laptop, but he preferred to borrow Kwong Hann’s laptop because it’s much
better, much to KH’s dismay. These kind of incidents went on, and I took an
abrupt break from it as I decided to pay my uncle, aunt and cousin a visit on
the other side of Iowa.

I was greeted at the bus station in Iowa City by my uncle and cousin, Kalai. We
had some good waffles, took a trip to Walmart before returning home to assemble
Kalai’s new bed. I spent most of my mornings there at the University of Iowa,
where they have some pretty amazing libraries. I also made it a point to visit
India Café for lunch once. Food there was still good, though the variety seemed
to have diminished. It was really a pleasant stay, and having my cousin around
was always nice. 5 days later, I returned to our rented apartment around the Drake University campus.

Things.. had got considerably worse.. Apparently a lot had
happened in my absence, and I must say, it was pretty funny hearing their
complaints.. haha. A few more days of the inter-apartment conflicts, and my
winter break was finally over.. Before Kwong Hann and I headed back to Chicago, we managed to visit Kohl’s (amazing clothing
prices.. best I’ve seen in the US), grabbed some cheap quality 2008 calendars
(4 bux each) and catch National Treasure: Book of Secrets in a huge EMPTY Iowan
theatre for 5 bux with free popcorn for each of us (which none of us could
finish). Ah, there was also Julian’s signature move.. treating us all to some good
food! Heh – this time it was Appleby’s..

That’s all for the trip.. the next post is comin up real
soon with updates on more recent happenings..

I know I say this time and time again (getting’ cliché really),
but it still never fails to amaze me just how fast time flies. It’s been a
little over a year now, since I left home to pursue my ambitions. Looking back,
there really seems to have been so much that has happened… an incredible course
of events that has unfolded, and practically refolded within the span of a year.

It’s pretty amazing that although so much has happened, I
feel as though someone hit the ‘Reset’ button… Everything’s new all of a sudden.
I’d even term it as a ‘fresh new start,’ if not for the lingering memories of
the events in between. On the bright side of things, my horrendous memory is
probably a blessing in this aspect.. I just need a little time to repress,
forget and move on.

Well it wouldn’t be my post if it didn’t have an exploration
of the deep elements, now would it? Hehe. Enough of the deep stuff, here’s the story
of my winter break.. a truly memorable one. (Heck.. if I was to rank my
favorite few days in my entire first year in the US, this break has to be Numero
Uno.

It began on the day I made my last blog entry, literally. I
had mentioned looking for winter plans, an on that night I decided to join a
few friends from ICSJ to New York  and stay
with them in Iowa
for the latter part. The semester ended soon after (results were pretty good… I
still hate Bio though), and Kwong Hann and I left to Iowa by bus on a cold Saturday morning.
(When you’re struggling to carry your luggage while walking, heavy snow is not
really a good thing.. L). Anyway, we arrived at Drake University that evening.. and it really felt like a Mini-Malaysia! Got a chance to catch
up with quite a few of my friends back from ICSJ. After slightly under a week
living on campus, we were all to depart from Des Moines Airport to Newark International Airport (let me define ‘we’…
Julian, Kwong Hann, Jeff & Joe (brothers from ICM who are addicted to
DOTA.. they were really nice and funny too), and myself). Anyway, all of them
were on Delta Airlines with a transition at Ohio. I was alone on Northwest (the same
airline that brought me to the US)
with a transition at Detroit.

To make a long story short, I had a terrible trip to Newark with delays and
stuff… and the guys on Delta? They had a delay too.. bt got compensated with a
stay at a 4-star hotel in Ohio!
(This while I spent the night at Des Moines Airport…
unfair!! Aaahhhhhh!!!) Haha. Anyway, I finally managed to get there, and we all
stayed at Holiday Inn International, Newark.
Next day we were joined by the trio from University of Waterloo, Canada
– Logen, John and Edward. To even things out, I moved to their room.

We were trippin’ to New York rightaway! We took a cab (kinda expensive) all
the way to Soho, Manhattan
and began walking around. It’s clearly a great place for shopping, and Chinatown is adjacent to it, which is where we had lunch
and dinner. Next few days, we visited all kinda places, mostly within Manhattan. We were also
joined by another guy, Jason during this period. The bulk of traveling really
helped us become masters on the relatively complex Subway system. One cloudy
afternoon, we just got tired of Manhattan, and
decided to take a trip on the Subway to Queens..
Logen & I had vaguely looked up Indian
Town around there.. so it
was to be an Indian lunch (yummy!) and dinner at the famed Flushing Ave. It took us some time to
find our to Indian town, but it was definitely worth the walk as we had the
most amazing Indian buffet lunch. (all of us agreed that it was the best meal
we’ve had since leaving Malaysia– except Kwong Hann who keeps bringing up Chicago’s
Bucadipeppo.. hmmm). Anyway, the lunch was soooo filling that we ended up going
to Flushing only to eat ‘Tau Fu Fa!’ A trip to
Ellis Island and Statue of Liberty was to
follow.. and we also went to the Central Park Zoo (a waste of time and money!!
Seriously..). On the night of New Year’s eve, I realized how badly it stinks to
be short (hmphhh!). We got to Times Square and
waited for about 4 hrs, and I could see almost nothing. But the atmosphere was
certainly entertaining. Last couple of days, we basically visited the Museum of Natural History and Central Park. (Julian & Kwong Hann
also went to Les Halles, celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain’s restaurant in Manhattan… 5 words..
EXPENSIVE,  but probably WORTH it). And
with that, the NY trip was well and truly over. But my trip adventures weren’t!
At Soho, we had purchased this short knife (I
wouldn’t even call it a knife.. it was sooo blunt) and I blindly had it in my
carry-on luggage. I was basically detained, as the others left for their
flight. Scary moments I have to say. They took away my passport and told me I’m
gonna miss my flight, and they’re gonna have security officers interrogate me.
I really tried my best to stay calm and composed (think I did a pretty good
job.. haha). However, in sort of an anti-climatic fashion (errr.. I wouldn’t
wanna get to the climax anyway!), they just suddenly returned me my passport
and ID, told me they confiscated the knife, and let me go to catch my flight.
Still dont completely comprehend what happened till now.. (Maybe it was just my
innocent look.. hehehehehehe). But yea, that was the ‘bang’ and the trip was
finally over. I was back at Iowa,
and we stayed there for some time. This has to go into my next posting.. so..
err.. stay tuned??

Alright folks.. that’s all for this posting.. there u go Mr.
Julian.. that’s how the 1^st part of my winter break went.. bet u can’t
wait to ‘hear’ how the latter part went… lolz. Adios yall’!

It really doesn’t feel like it’s been all that long since I made my last post here.. but hey! The semester’s almost over! Another 3 weeks, and it’s winter break. Speakin of winter break, I haven’t really made any plans yet. (Hint hint! Any economical trips that I could join guys??? P.S: Economical = less than USD$1000 for the entire break.. too cheap-skate? :p)

Anyway, lots of changes going around. For one, I REALLY miss home, wayyyy more than before. (for this, i owe special thanks to certain people here who have indirectly made my life here a living hell). So I’m looking to get an internship of some sort back home or in Singapore (but the interviews and all are gonna be a prob.. guess I won’t mind if it’s worth the trouble) this coming summer.

As some of you may have noticed on my MSN not too long ago, I had the words "IIT, nothing but a genuine sh*thole." To put the reasons bluntly - 4 exams in a week, charged 50 bucks for no reason, travelled approximately 20 times to the Bursar’s office within 2 days trying to remove a hold that was never supposed to be there in the first place, and thanks to the registering holds, 3 of the classes I wanted to register in were full.. not to mention this infidel wolf in sheepskin that’s been nagging me time and time again.

That being said, I’m certainly looking forward to the coming week.. (With 18 credit hrs, it’s nt very often you get weeks with only 4 classes! ). And I have managed to register 5 subjects after the entire fiasco (Still waiting on another two.. that’s right! 7 subjects next sem! Woohooo! Gonna go mad!!) - Organic Chem 2, Thermodynamics 1, CHE 317 lab, Industrial Psychology, Introduction to IPRO (IPRO is basically Interprofessional Project, a couple of projects (with a wide variety of choice) every undergraduate student is required to participate in and work in teams)..

Well, that’s all for now. Will write more when I feel like it. :p Ciaozy!

Days are warm.. the breezes are less frequent. Yet some things still have not really changed.. Classes for the summer are over, and I’m already looking forward to the next semester. I’ve been jogging and playing soccer pretty frequently these days. Haven’t got much to do in the apartment, which isn’t too different from a furnace I’d have to say. I also took some time to have a look at my expenditure for the summer, and it’s approximately USD 2000, (which I’m still not sure if it’s too much or relatively less), accounting for everything including food and apartment rental.

James and Taehoon (2 Koreans who we Malaysians here are closest to) are back from their trips to Korea & Europe respectively. Life has been more lively with their presence, yet in a few days from now, it’s gonna be pretty dull. Everyone except Wai Kit and I are going on trips to different corners of the US (Sam-Florida, HK & Tae-California, Xin Yi & Bing-Pennsylvania, James-Alaska). Well, I guess it’s not too bad with just Wai Kit.. (ermm.. yeah.. lolz). Anyway, in an effort to kill time, both of us have signed up to volunteer at the International Center to welcome the incoming international students for the fall semester. I’m expecting it to be a pretty cool experience meeting lotsa new people (not to mention the hot European girls.. woohoo!).

Well, other than that there is the arrival of Tan Kwong Hann (a friend from back in Inti Subang Jaya) at IIT to look forward to. I also heard there are a couple of Malaysians from Inti Nilai coming here as well next semester. A few more to add to the family. Well, what can I say? The more the merrier? Haha.. 18 credit hours next semester though.. and the subjects aren’t really peanuts, you see.. (especially considering that Physical Chem is one of them… aaargh!). Lotsa interesting stuff to look forward to, yep… lots of it..

Uhuh.. this post of mine sure is after finals.. WAYYYYY after! Sorry guys, since the start of summer, I got myself a personal diary, and I guess I just stopped blogging here.. Anyway, I’ve lost the diary now.. (Btw, thanks Julian for reminding about this blog)..

My first summer break in the US has been interesting, though not all that eventful. There’s been a lot of ups and downs. Here I am, trying to recall the events throughout this summer break to update you guys.. The next few minutes it’s gonna be freestyle blogging, about my summer break so far. (Gonna try to keep it chronologically ordered).

A little before the end of my final exams last semester, I was struck by some devastating news.. My grandfather, ‘Vallal’ A Sithambaram, had passed away in India. The event had set the tone for the start of my summer. The man was truly a giver, and lived a great life.. and as my mom put it ‘He was unanimous, synonymous & ubiquitous…to all those who knew him..’

Rest in peace Grandpa..

I also have to thank a couple of my friends here who helped me tback on my stride..

A soon as the final exams were over, the dorms were closing, and it was time to move to a nearby apartment our home for the summer..

Sure seemed a decent place for the summer at first, but soon we were to find out we had other ‘co-residents’.. BED BUGS! A whole bunch of them! Don’t be fooled by the name.. these creatures are really irritating.. and make terrible pests. They have a relatively long life span, and are rated the 2nd hardest bugs to get rid of.. (termites take the top spot). Till now, we’ve still yet to get rid of these bugs, but I guess we’ve got used to their bites these days..

Other than that, Wai Kit and I are taking Organic Chemistry 1 for the summer at a community college south of IIT - Kennedy-King College. It’s a brand new campus, and we have a pretty good lecturer. However, it’s the amazing 7 other people we have as classmates that makes the class one to look forward to. Each of them have their own unique characteristics, dreams and background. We’ll be having a class party on the last day of class (bout’ 2 weeks from now), but I’m sure most of us if not all will stay in touch beyond the end of classes..

We have also been going around Chicago, making trips to places of interest such as the Field Museum, Adler Planetarium, Taste of Chicago, the movie theatres, Lincoln Park, Six Flags Great America (an amazing theme park.. I went on 11 different thrill rides!) and so on.. I have also making my own ventures around Chicago, enjoying the beauty of the landscape, greenery and the people itself. Whenever I feel a little down (that’s happened pretty often.. trust me.. lol), I just take a walk around downtown, and I end u feeling much better at the end of my stroll.

Now for a conclusion. Sure, there have been a lot of conflicts among us (all of us who are staying together), but I guess that just comes with staying together. A good relatonship cannot be without its bumps and curves.. There’s a saying that goes ‘What doesn’t kill you, only makes you stronger.’ I feel it applies to relationships as well - what doesn’t break the bond only makes it stronger. As for me, I’m still feeling the same way as ever about Chicago.. a home away from home. And I’m thankful as ever for the wonderful people around me..

Can’t remember the last time I blogged.. but I must say, a lot has happened since. On the academic side of things, things have been rather average. I keep wanting to try my best, but I guess at the end of it all, I can only be contempt with the fact that I give it my all. My careless nature still haunts me, probably even more nowadays..

Soccer (football) has become a weekly activity these days. Finally found a nice group of friends I can play with week in week out. The air’s still a little cold though, so breathing gets a little hard at times. I’ve also been going around Chicago and exploring the ‘windy city.’ The weather may remain an enigma (it snowed even in April!) but the coming of spring is an imminent one, and I can’t help but notice how beautiful the transformation really is. Seriously, I would have taken photos and posted them here if I was not caught up with the increasingly crazy workload at IIT. But not to worry.. for now, it’s only gonna get better. So once the semester is over (bout 3 weeks from now) I’ll take those photos.

As for current happenings, I guess I can’t skip the ominous shock from the Virginia Tech shootings. It’s sent shockwaves all over the country, and the fact that those videos were shot before the actual incident… it just messed me up completely. The images on MSN were disturbing, to say the least. And the video excerpts.. think I’ll hold back my comments on this for now.. I feel like I’m being engulfed by this weird feeling as I just speak of it (blog in this case).. My sympathy goes to the victims, and their loved ones.. my respect, to the few who died as heroes.

I’m still looking for a place to stay for summer, and also a job (the latter seems to be less and less of a possibility with the passin of every day). As for other summer plans, I’m still pretty undecided. Maybe summer courses would be a good idea. Still pondering though.

And here’s an important update (well, i guess it’s more important relative to all the other crap I’ve blogged on above). I’ve decided on my minor… PSYCHOLOGY! Haha. I decided I’d pursue something where my interest lies.. and what’s better than my infatuation with the chemistry of the human mind (don’t get me the wrong way k! I juz like understanding the different perspectives and views of people). I gotta have 15 credit hours of psychology subjects to be considered for a minor.. so thanks to PSY 105 back in INTI (no.. i did not take it under Miss Khor.. hmm) it’s 3 down, 12 to go.

For those of you who are wondering, I’m not comin back to Malaysia during summer. (Actually, not gonna be back till I graduate, which should be in about 2 1/2 yrs).

This is odd.. When I start blogging, I feel as though there’s sooo much to write on. But as I keep going, I run out of topics really fast.. Of course, part of it is because I don’t wanna have etremely long posts.. but if that’s the case, then I shud start blogging more frequently, rather than accumulating everything, then just summarizing everything that comes to mind when I blog. After all, I’m pretty notorious for having a ‘good memory’..

But anyway, I guess I should stop here for now. Next post should be after the finals. Till then, take care! And god bless VT!

Been so long since i posted something here… Biggest reason, I just got myself a facebook account! Haha. It’s like d US version of friendster. So i haen’t accessed my friendster account for some time. Sorry guys. Anyway, a lot has happened since my last update.. Where shall I start? There was the screwed up ECONS test, the opening of the BOG (IIT’s very own student club/pub with bowling, pool etc etc), a couple more tests that were less screwed up, CNY reunion dinner, CNY parade at Chinatown and the most recent… our trip to the Shedd Aquarium today (trust me.. you haven’t seen anything if u’ve only been to the Underwater World Langkawi..). Not to forget a whole bunch of new friends made (I’ve given up keeping track).

Bout 2 weeks back, we all went to the BOG.. a pretty cool place to hang out.. It was actually the first time i’ve gone clubbing in my life (yesh.. i noe.. sounds sad but its true..). For me it was more of an ‘awareness’ period of just how badly i suck at dancing.. lol. Anyway, most of us were just swayin n jumpin around.. Haha.

The following weekend was CNY.. Wai Kit, Ison, Peter, HK, James, Young and myself made our way to Penang.. the restaurant at Chinatown for a CNY ‘reunion dinner’ kinda thingy. We ended up feastin on the food (7 dishes, lotsa rice, cendol, roti canai etc etc). Food was good.. and the price was cut-throat to make up for i guess.. haha. But it was CNY.. so i guess we just indulged. Next day, we went to Chinatown in the afternoon to catch the dragon dance and parade. The crowd was massive.. n there were all kinda stuff going on. I just kept taking shot after shot with my cam, until my fingers just got numb and frosted (oh yea.. did i forget to mention it was freakin cold?). Anyway, we stayed thru the whole event, before goin to a nearby coffee shop to heat ourselves up a little.. very different from the CNY celerations we have back there in Malaysia(it’s definitely different when u have no holidays in d first place!) but it was still nice, celebratin with these great individuals i’ve befriended in my 2 months here..

Our trip to the Shedd Aquarium was pretty neat as well. They normally charge 15 USD per entry, bt this week they were opening the place to the public for free, so of course.. we couldn’t miss it! Thanks to our class endin a little late on Fridays, we could only be there for like an hour or so, but it was still a worthwhile trip. And here I am now.. bloggin away.. it’s been like 2 hrs since we got back to the dorms. Plannin to watch a movie today probably.. And I’m really lookin forward to the spring break in 2 weeks time.. Gotta catch up on my studies as well. (IIT’s just murderous when it comes to homeworks.. n like i said before, u really do feel some serious pressure at times.

Guess that’s about it for now guys. Will post the pictures on my friendster profile soon..(CNY, Shedd, the BOG etc etc).. Adieu!

K guys! Really sorry for not being able to post anything for quite some time. Anyway, been really busy with studies, shopping etc etc. Not everything has been going too smoothly, but I guess I’ll have to get on with it. Alrighty.. since it’s already been 2 weeks into classes, it’s time for an initial report on the classes.. This one’s mainly fr those of you considering coming to IIT..

First up, CHE 101.. Introduction to Profession II. Our professor is Fouad Teymour, who coincidentally is the Head of the entire Chemical Engineering department. A really nice guy. It’s basically a computer lab class, and it revolves around Matlab! (Gosh.. Dr. Chan!! I need your help!!) It involves a lot of data interpretation and graphing.. WAY more difficult than what we did in Cal 3. No manuals, no guides… Our only solace is the Help command.. Wai Kit & I have been crackin our heads on it (and will be for the rest of the semester..) and are discovering a lot as we go.. As for the other students, they’re pretty nice. Friendliest class of the lot I’d say..

Next is CHE 202, Material & Energy Balances. This is supposedly the basic foundation for Chem E.. (you don’t get this, think again about your major..) Involves a lot of conversion and calculations. Our professor is Jai Prakash, one of the directors of the Chem E department. Quite a dull class (Wai Kit & I fall asleep a times..) but I guess it’s gonna pick up soon. ECE218, Digital Systems is our other ’sleeping’ class. The professor, Nathan Jachimiec’s really good. He knows his stuff and lectures well, but I guess the hall we study in is just too comfy that we get sleepy.. Haha. The syllabus is a tough one.. and I’ll be on my toes come the quizzes and exams..

Next up, ECON 423.. Economic & Capital Investments. Now like I mentioned before, I have no idea what I’m doing in a 400-level class, but I guess it’s a pretty interesting class.. full of jokes. John Twombly’s the professor, and the class is the only one among my 5 this semester that is recorded and viewed on IITV (A seperate learning area where extra students who enrolled late for the class are provided with headphones and speakers and watch the class through TV). Last but not least, CS 105.. Introduction to Programming. I never was a programmer, and learning it is pretty fun actually. You begin to realise how stupid computers really are! Haha. We’re still working with simple programs and it’s gonna get interesting as time goes. There’s gonna be a project where we’ll have to create a program on our own.. (Hoping it won’t be all that hard..).

Yesterday was Ison’s birthday. (Ison’s a guy from Sarawak who lives on the same floor with me). We got him a cake and the celebration turned out to be a pretty big one. Will post more about it with photos when I get em’ (Upload the photos Sam!.. haha).

Guess that’s about it for now.. It’s strange that I have not really posted much about my new friends here.. especially Sam, HK, Xin Yi, Lavish and Bing. And the whole Korean gang too. Will do so soon.. Just gimme some time ya. Interesting posts with photos coming soon. Haha. Till then, adios!