Summer Solstice:

My Ideal by Kenny Dorham

First day of Summer.

What this implies to me is that there are only two things: Sunny; hot, Thunderstorms; humid.

Oh wait. That sounds really familiar. That sounds exactly like Malaysia, all over again

.

Recently, I got the chance to really explore Plattsburgh in depth; something that I didn't get the chance to previously. I realized, this place that I called home for two years now, is actually a very scenic destination for a nature lover like me. I also realized that to be able to optimize your time here in Plattsburgh, to see as many interesting sights as possible, you will need to take the Road Less Travelled. Of course, there is a lot of walking and sometimes hiking, complimenting my plain curiosity and my love for adventure, getting my Converse kicks dirty and wet, all those are worthwhile. Memories will soon be embedded, along with the dust and stains picked up along the miles, in between the threads of the fabric of the shoe.
This is the life of an adventurer, An Explorer.

Stargaze. Who would have known? Who would have appreciated?

Just the little perks of life that will forever be tattooed into your heart, your mind, your soul.

One, Two, Three the count of three,

Lighted up the sky of Spring.

Lifted up sorrowful worries,

Leaving behind a grin of glee.
For once, I didn't have to pretend that the Airplanes in the night sky are like Shooting Stars. For once, once again, my wishes came true. Trice consecutively, criss-crossing through the dark universe, where these beautiful deaths fell from eternity. The night was perfect. Still. Serene. Dry grass. Great companion. Nothing beats the nonchalant chattering, while our heartbeats synchronized orchestrally in this plain wide field of an Oval. Nothing beats the imaginary slow dance at the gazebo.
Night was young when it wasn't.
Frozen in time, when the world wasn't.
Just You and Me, taking a step at a time.
Breathing in the state of divine.

"Sometimes life is about the ability to believe in where you are going even when you're not sure what lies ahead."

Love, ∞

spook,

Schindler's List, Film Score by John Williams

Here I was. Riding my bicycle as swiftly as possible past the midnight cemetery.
It would probably be one of the harder decisions I had to make that Saturday night.
Going, I cowardly took the route along main street, deliberately avoiding the cemetery route. I'm scared of seeing the supernatural, despite my unusual obsession over documentaries about it. I would swear on that confession.
Nevertheless, I thought twice coming back using the same route I went with as on my way, these two creepy drunk guy shouted at me from across the road, making some drunk comments about my bicycle. Oh yeah. "... BIKE! ... BIKE! ... BIKE!"
This was all I could make out of what one of the guys were shouting at me about. All I took away from his clamoring was something about my bicycle.
The fact that they appeared as if they were about to sprint over in my direction and do something to me, or my bicycle that they were fixated upon if there weren't cars passing by, freaked me out.
Honestly, at this point of time, who would you be more afraid of? Human? Or the supernatural?
,

It was an unnerving experience, coming back. Maybe it was just me, being too vigilant, too paranoid. It was as if I opened up all my chakra points and activated my fight-or-flight system. Besides the crickets and river sounds, I could hear something ringing at the back of my head. Weirdest feeling ever.
I rode my bike up the hill towards the cemetery and the moment I past the junction, I saw this pair of eyes just a little above the ground, staring right into my soul. Those reflective pair of eyes was that of a black cat. Yes. A Black Cat. What a coincidence right? And some say black cats are associated with death and darkness. Perfect timing to get spooked out right? Plus, when I passed by right beside it, the cat didn't make any slight attempt to dodge me at all! It was just staring me down, NASFWG.
That black cat. Spooky.
My own shadow, cast on the dark bitumen pavement was accelerating ahead of me as street lamps slid across me towards my back. Somehow I was concentrating on my paddling and my own shadow, as if I was expecting something out of the ordinary to happen to it or something. I also found myself mumbling, possibly to the supernatural residents in their resting places.
"I don't mean to trespass, but I just want to get home as quickly as possible."
Those words, I kept on repeating under my breath, hoping that it would at least 'save' me from the possibility of dying from being overly petrified if I actually encounter 'one'. Just hoping that they would spare me from experiencing a presence
.

Regardless of my paranoia, I managed to get back, safe and sound. It was late out then. Two in the morning I suppose? Whatever it was, I do not want to pass by the cemetery during the witching time of the night alone, ever again, if possible.
Getting chills up my spine just thinking about it. Plus, the cold wind that night wasn't quite helpful as well :/

Apprehensive,

Evelyn Lee

spontaneity,

Orchestra Suite No. 3 in D Major by J.S. Bach

"In the end, it's not going to matter how many breaths you took, but how many moments took your breath away." - Shing Xiong

a walk to remember

.

Friday, May 31st, 2013.

I spent this last day of the month with ample of room for spontaneity.

I woke up, feeling fresh. Went to campus, had a wonderful date with Mr. Grand. Ran some errands, met some friends, did some homework.

They all felt like routines, until this flush of mood came: I wanted to eat ice-cream!

I have no idea where this spontaneity came from, but this sudden craving for ice-cream was driving me nuts! I was rather desperate for some nice, chill ice-cream in this hot day out.

So I gathered some people and together, we headed down to this little ice-cream place.

They had many flavors of ice-cream but they all came in a cup. I needed the experience of eating ice-cream out of a cone. That was part of the plan. That was part of the craving. I just had to forgo those fancy flavors and stuck to the standard regular twist that I already adore so much :)

,

We missed the SA shuttle to Walmart. No biggie.

Teased Sanchir with my sidekick, Baek by attempting to sing 忐忑. No biggie.

Random coin-tossing, which result was ignored and forgone the shuttle ride to Walmart eventually. No biggie.

Officially met Jeshi, and a new-found friend, Vanessa. Reconnected with old friends. No biggie.

Short walk back to retrieve the poor little brown Aero messenger bag from in front of the ACC, just because the owner absent-mindedly abandoned it there with all the most important things and documents in there. No biggie.

Had an awesome dinner, which I did nothing to help out at all. Pleasurably guilty. No biggie.

Long conversation that eventually led to learning 日本語 from Iori-chan. No biggie.

Sober moments amongst 酔うてる people. No biggie.

Sanchir, smiling with his bloodshot eyes, drunk-talking, was certainly very entertaining.

We ended up playing this drawing game that he came up with.

Think outside of the box, so he said

.

The half moon was blood red. The majestic sight of it put me into an instant trance. Out we went, chasing the moon. Spontaneity.

I especially adore those long talks, cool breeze against our cheeks, gentle fluorescent street light, leaves rustling in the background. Subconsciously, the 1.3 miles trail walk turned into an adventure further down to the port. Spontaneity.

"Do you guys have a boat down there? This is a private property."

Woah, that was not friendly at all. Seemed to me like he almost wanted to kick butt or something.

Our initial plan: climb onto one of the boats and chill there. Apprehended by a guy who pulled up his car beside us. Spontaneity

.

Tranquil. The atmosphere was.

Quiet. The moon was.

Serene. The stars in the sky were.

Placid. The water was.

Composed. Our thoughts were.
Deep. Our breaths were.

The moments felt surreal. Unemcumbered by worries. Just two heartbeats, expressing profound truths about each other in simple language.

As we spoke at great length about various things, our eyes were inevitably drawn in by the picture perfect scenery.
Engulfing in all that we can, how I wish time would spare us our youth, spare us moments like this.
The moon, playing peekaboo with us by sliding in and out of the clouds occasionally.
Its moonlight, reflected upon by the calm water, leaving a faint streak of glimmering lights on the surface.
The smithereens of stars, suspending millions of light years away from us. The source of those twinkling lights that we now perceive may have been long gone, exploded. Nevertheless, they left us with such glow and hope that keeps us going.

Still remember how I was quivering whenever the cool breeze sweeps by to greet us abruptly. Cold hands, cold feet, but was fortunate enough to have another pair of hands and feet warming those up
.

An hour and 15 minutes to sunrise. We just had to keep on going since we were already half way there. Spontaneity.
3.45am. We headed back to my apartment to gather some equipments that include water, jackets and camera
,

Sunrise at Champlain Park wasn't quite complete without the actual sunrise. Thick cotton clouds were obstructing the morning rays from blessing our tender skin with Vitamin D.

Nonetheless, the scenery was magnificent.

 Ducks were paddling around in the water in pairs, waddling on the grass in pairs, while we sat there on the edge of the stone barrier, in a pair.

At the end of it, we bid goodbyes with nice long hugs
Finally, what feels like Friday, ended with a nice warm shower and snuggling in bed with my favorite childhood plushie :)

...

a tacit confession of affection, perhaps?

Love, Eve

忐忑。

Hello. I am still alive.

It happened all too quickly. Adrenaline was rushing. Despite the full blown activation of the Sympathetic and Parasympathetic Nervous System, all that filled my ears were the urgency of the honking by the culprit and the roaring sound of the word "shit" in my mind. Milliseconds after, the car was rocking vigorously back and forth side ways. The car came this close, this close to flipping over.

My left arm came first into contact with the side of the car, leaving it swollen and bruised now. It hurts.

My mind, is constantly reminded of the scientific term "coupe" and "contra-coupe" that means brain damage on first contact and secondary contact following the impact.

My heart races when I have a flash back of the incident.

There were five of us in the car, yet, I was the only person who saw everything the clearest.

That blue car was coming at us at full speed. The driver himself knew that he wouldn't make it in time to brake and didn't bother to, expecting us to do it. We were already more than halfway through turning. In spite daddy's last second accelerating, we couldn't make it. The bumper was destroyed. Kaput.

It was an experience nevertheless, just not a very fun one. Car being hit twice in five days? Both within the short time frame that I am back home from US? What luck is this?

Signing out from Singapore, barely recovering from the fever yesterday,

Pei Ning

did you?

Dreaming With A Broken Heart by John Mayer

Was listening to this song and I heard this phrase,

"waking up is the hardest part"

As a person who adores metaphor, I fell in love immediately with this phrase, being that I can relate to this phrase at a personal level as well

.

Whoever says that waking up is going to be easy? Every morning, that moment when you open your eyes, it is another brand new day and you know it. However, the temptation to just continue lying down and snuggle with your blanket is great!

Talk about the Physics principle of Inertia. Definitely true, especially after a whole night long of not moving

,

Whoever says that waking up from a dream is going to be easy? Of course, it involves you giving up of your previous believes and adopting a new set. It involves a new set of belief that completely contradict with your current ones.

How apprehensive that the future is no longer bright for you after waking up.

Look around you, the world is moving on, signifying the urgency for you to keep up. Of course it is moving forward, but whether in the right track with the right pace or not, only itself is clear about it.

That small fee I paid to see the world, is probably the best investments I have ever had in my life since young. Sure I splurge on unnecessary things occasionally, but this was an eye-opener.

It got me thinking. It got me pondering. It answered many questions I previously had.

I was rather traumatized. No doubt that I was. There were numerous events that I had to slowly digest, but deep in my heart, I know that I have decided and I have to stay strong with that decision.

After all, who would invest their trust on me if I couldn't trust my own instinct?

I'm glad that I still see some light in the dark endless tunnel. It was gradually fogging up, even the light seemed blurry and vague.

Should I pick up my pace and sprint towards it before it vanishes? Or should I stay put and admire the beautiful ray, regret when it vanishes?

"A true pilot must of necessity pay attention to the season, the heaven, the stars, the winds and everything proper to the craft if he is really the rule a ship." - Plato, The Republic

LeePeiNing

Betrayed.

It certainly took me forever to regain consciousness.

Forever to wake up from that deep slumber.

Feels like everything that I once had was unreal, fake and phony.

Everything was for a reason, a motif behind drawn curtains.

I cannot comprehend.

I certainly cannot fathom.

There is no way I can.

How could people transform from being such an innocent harmless child at birth, to be so maliciously harmful to other people's well being?

Such selfish bastards those people are.

I would be more than willing to pick up a weapon and end their petty little pest life right there.

Sadistically enjoy their slow and excruciatingly painful death.

Sadistically enjoy the sight of their body structures and limbs drop separately and lifelessly on the floor before my feet.

Sadistically savor the taste of those mudblood on my lips.

I would even be Hitler reborn of this 21st century, have a genocide for pests like you from the world.

The absence of people like you, oh yes I could already see it, taste it.

The freedom and peaceful ambient in the surrounding.

My last words for you -

"For all the sins that you have committed, you shall have karma to come against your will.

Burn in hell."

behind drawn curtains;

Ego by Beyonce

Curtains drawn. Play begins. Standing ovation

.

EOP Summer Institute 2012 was incredible, to begin with. Never knew what I signed up for, never knew what to expect. People ask me why.

"Merely to fill in my Summer that is."

Used to tell everyone that this is a job. First day into training, completely changed my perception about this "job" that I signed up for. A "career" instead. A "passion".

Poised and adept, all of my team members. Conflict free, focused on supporting and educating the young sprouts of SUNY Plattsburgh.
The end was nearing. The end has come. The end is gone.
"I will now announce who made it and who didn't. When your name is called, please meet me in the EOP office right after supper." Michele proceeded back to her seat and sat down, uttered no words. Cheers filled the entire dining room. Emotions overflowed. Goosebumps surfaced. I scurried towards the back of the food area where there was no one and started crying. Tears streaked my face. Happy tears. Speechless, overwhelmed, proud.
Is this the feeling every teacher gets, whenever his/her students succeed? If it is, I absolutely adore this feeling of accomplishment, this feeling of pride. Hugs never get old in occasions like this. I wept like I was one of the students, who made it through the four weeks of hell in a program similar to that of a boot camp, who is able to come back to SUNY Plattsburgh in the Fall as a fully matriculated college student

.

The banquet was the event of recognition. Seeing each one of them go up front to receive their certificate of completion, I couldn't be more elated. Of course, tutor counselors were recognized as well; first timers girls each got a personalized bracelet engraved with EOP 2012 and name, boys each got a personalized dog tag, returners get personalized USB Drive, Cassie, most senior of all, got a personalized photo album.

Can't thank Matt more, our beloved Program Coordinator. Each team member chipped in a small amount of money to get him a bike rack he yearned for. A small and insignificant token compared to the amount of hard work that man put in throughout this program.

.

Farewell was never easy. Cried so bad. Felt like a piece of my heart was breaking apart from the whole as I waved each white van goodbye while seeing its red tail lights disappear into the silent, somber night.

Will be waiting for everyone's return. Will be seeing everyone on campus this coming Fall.

Soon. Very soon.

Toast to my new found family,

Hopeful,

Evelyn

amazing death;

Into The New World by SNSD

I knew I have a passion for this. I knew I have a passion to help people

.

Classes went great. In fact, tutoring was better. It is where all the things get real. I love the communication, I love the interaction.

Working with these three Chinese students gave me a lot to think about. They are learning from me, but at the same time, I am learning from them and learning from myself.

I love and appreciate the heart to heart pillow talk under the tree behind Macomb Hall with them in the warm afternoon. Seeing the tears of helplessness and relief fall down all at the same time was overwhelming. I can and cannot imagine being in their shoes. It must be so tough and miserable for them to go through this ordeal of having to learn, deal and communicate with other people in a foreign language that you were given a limited time and resources to learn and expected to be phenomenal at it.

My throat died tonight for one reason - to make sure that these three students succeed. That was all that matters. It was the satisfaction that I get at the end of it. A satisfaction that goes beyond just being able to help them in their studies. I was literally explaining every sentence of the reading of "Thinking As A Hobby" by William Golding to them, repeating my explanation over and over again slowly to make sure that they understand the words coming out of my mouth. However, at the same time I was doing all the talking and explanations, I was amazed at my ability to comprehend myself. I was intrigued at the amazing content that I was able to discover as I go through the reading in depth. I had goosebumps and chills playing catching at the back of my spine. The feeling was incredible. This feeling

.

Tutoring ended at 10pm. Came back at 10.30pm. The first thing I wanted to do was to shower but curfew was at 11pm so I had to wait. When it was all finally done, Matt called me on a trip to University Police to get an ice pack for a girl who sprained her ankle. Finally! I was in the nice shower. The water was colder than I wanted it to but it would not heat up, just like how it was the past few days. As I was completely covered in soap, I saw some light flashing at the top of the ceiling and I vaguely hear some sounds that was somewhat like a fire alarm to me. Took me quite some moment before I came to my senses that cuss words started spewing out of my mouth.

"This is not happening! THIS IS NOT HAPPENING! F***!"

I was panicking in the shower trying to wash all the soap away from my body. Was literally scooping the bubbles out of the way. I was traumatized. Seeing that I am a tutor counselor and definitely not being able to strut out of the building wrapped in my towels, I had to run back upstairs and put some clothing on. Well, there I was, scurrying out in my jean jacket and Adidas pants with my hair dripping wet towards where all the other TCs, Food and Wellness coordinators, the Program Coordinator and the rest of the students. That was my walk of shame. Nevertheless, I believe everyone took pity on me.

Speak about FML

,

Tuition fees was put out officially today. It went up A LOT! This is so not happening to me and all the students. This is so unfair! Speak about FML again.

Here it is. Ending my night in such a depressing and miserable way.

Just trying to be a little more optimistic, I took a long nap today, which was something rare as a pink diamond. Moreover, I will be having my night off tomorrow so I could rest. No tutoring for me to miss so everyone else is not missing out on much as well. Hmm...

I guess it is time to wash up and go to bed now that I just hard cored drying my hair and it is good enough for bed.

Till then!

Love, 

Pei Ning

melt;

Better In Time by Leona Lewis

Praises.

These things work magic. They are miraculous.

Unfortunately, this is not something very common from where I grew up. Now that is cultural differences. Since young, I hardly receive praises from anyone. Teachers, friends.

Well, I have very good parents. They were very supportive of me. They praise me for my achievements, they do not condemn me of my failure but merely give me motivational advices.

The funny thing about my parents is that they are EXTREMELY afraid that I might turn out mentally challenged. My siblings are undeniably intelligent. As the youngest among my siblings, I am often reminded of that pressure to "keep up the good work" whenever they come home with some amazing achievements. I am always flabbergasted by how they manage to be such achievers.

The fact is that my parents see that in me, my burning desire to do as good as my siblings or better. They know that failing is not an option for me. They know it. And that is why they are so afraid that I might be too hard on myself that I go crazy or something. Certainly, they do not wish to receive a phone call in the middle of the night from my school, all the way from the United States, saying that their daughter has ended up in an asylum or what not.

Believe me or not, they even had this conversation about committing suicide with me.

"Pei Ning, we spent so many years, so much money, raising you so that you can be a great person. If only one day you decide to commit suicide, all our efforts, poof, gone. Not only that, along with those investments we had in you, there comes feelings and love. If only one day you decide to commit suicide, mummy and daddy will be very sad ohhhhh..."

Yeap. There you go. Those words, straight forward it may sound, but it is true. Those words are right there, carved in my heart. This means so much more than just a simple message of not committing suicide when you give up on life. This means to stay strong and pull through hell hole.

On the side note, I cracked open a fortune cookie that says: "Bravery is the capacity to pull through even though you are scared to death."

Coming to the United States certainly is challenging. All around me are people who came from different cultural backgrounds. The Americans. They are very honest and direct. They see each other, they greet each other. "Hey. What's up?" "Hey how's it going?" "Hey. How are you?" Well, till now I am still getting used to replying to those questions. Most of the time, I had to think for a long while before replying "good", which ends the conversation and makes people think I am weird. Truth is, we're different. I am not used to this.

In America, people do Rock Paper Scissors Shoot. In Malaysia, we do Scissors Paper Stone

.

This Summer in EOP, I open my eyes up to more things. The learning process never ends and this is what makes life so interesting. It is still five days into the program and it is still training period, but I am already loving this program. I am praised by my colleagues all the time and I am certainly learning to praise other people and trying to feel comfortable and natural with it. I am trying. I am learning.

Yesterday was my first time playing a real volleyball game and I am already loving it! The experience is certainly different from playing it back in high school. The ball is lighter and it doesn't hurt as bad as the ones from high school. Not to mention that I sprained my hand somehow in the process of it. However, being the person who loves sports, I was doing rather okay I would say. My colleagues were extremely supportive of me, constantly praising me and giving me second tries or reassurances when I mess up. I adore the feeling of it.

"Yo people! Evelyn's a natural man! She's a natural!"

"That was good man. That was good."

"No don't worry about it. It is just a game."

"Don't worry Evelyn. We don't play money in this game."

Every time someone starts to be too focused on the game and breaking up the spirits in sports, we get people to remind everyone that we should not forget that we are just playing to have fun. I absolutely adore this kind of learning environment. I just think it is very stimulating and keeps the team spirit high. It keeps you motivated and hopeful.

Matt, the program coordinator, he praised me several times when we are playing game and after.

"Something about Evelyn is that she is always willing to try new things." "And she is good at stuff!" Chris said. That made me melt happily inside.

Partnered with Matt several times and he's really supportive of the team. It feels great because you know deep down that he has your back. I just love the honesty and appreciation that one can benefit from being in this kind of positive and stimulating learning environment. It just makes you want to keep on going and succeeding in your role and responsibilities.

For now, I really can't wait for the students to come in and see what this team can bring to the table. At the same time, I would love to see what I can achieve and witness for myself how much I have learned and to be able to put the things I have learned throughout training period into great use. I am really looking forward to this Summer and see what comes.

This might sound a little too confident but...

BRING IT!

:P

That's me right there.

That's right.

I am a perfectionist.

Pei Ning

EOP Summer Institute Program 2012

Young Forever by The Ready Set

My first intention on signing up for this program is just to fill up my Summer. Instead of doing nothing, I want to do something.

Honestly, I had no idea what I signed up for. I had no idea what this program was about, what I'll be going through and even my responsibilities. I am just completely dumb and blind about my Summer job. And this was not long before, when I still call this - a job.

A Summer job

.

I would say it has been a great lunch outing and a mere 24 hours prior to moving into Macomb Hall that I finally discover a new shade to this 'job' that I signed up for. Turns out, I actually signed up for something, way beyond my expectations that actually caught me off guard. Not to mention, they gave the staff single rooms :P

This whole Summer Institute actually has greater meaning than I thought it did just this morning when I woke up to Flo-rida. This program, despite being this mere first day of training (more like an introduction), seems like it is going to exciting and might even provide me one hell of an experience to my already interesting college life in the States.

I have been hearing great feedbacks about this program from former staffs and students and especially from the EOP office staffs that have been involved in this program for the past few years. I think this is going to be real fun, albeit some down and depressing moments that we will face along the way but this is life! Isn't it? Not every moment is glorious and smooth-sailing.

I am starting to feel it. Beginning to be attached to this program and the people that I will be working with for the next month to come. The experience that I had on this first day (and it is not completely over yet), is already mind-blowing and motivating.

One piece of advice that I got from Michele Carpentier was that we have to look back into history and be grateful for what we have right now. The opportunities and privileges that were given to us through someone else's sacrifices. "People actually died fighting for what we have right now." I just thought that was really inspiring.

,

Well, the position that I am at right now, I am going to think twice before calling this a job that I signed up for unknowingly.

Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does. - William James

Till then,

Spring 2012 @ SUNY Plattsburgh

A Thousand Years by The PianoGuys

Oh everything is so beautiful right now!

.

The semester is finally over. It was a hectic one. It ended by me, submitting my final paper of the semester and sure thing it is going to be a blast, where I will start it off by going Downtown to have fun tonight for the first time. I wonder how it is going to turn out.

Nevertheless, today's weather isn't going to be a great one as we have been getting warnings, all over the television and the radio, even from the campus email that there will be a thunder storm coming our way. "Thunder, damaging winds and hail are likely" does not sound very good to me.

Was bidding goodbyes with Yee Jin's beloved roommate (no one is going to play Battlefield while I sit aside and watch until Fall semester :( :( :( Am going to miss Joey daddy almost teddy hair!! )

.

Immediately after, raced ahead of the storm to Beaumont to submit my paper. Oh hell yeah it made my day! Not only I got to end the semester officially, I also got to hear once more from the lecturer, Dr. Morales. He was such a great lecturer this semester, providing us with whatever we needed to pass the class. This Jr. Psych Seminar class was definitely a hectic one. Hands down. At least two journal papers to read each week with the same amount of reaction paper to write. Throughout the semester, we have read and written 25 papers in total, not to mention how all of the journal papers are at least 20 pages long!! Each person in the class should also choose two topics in the semester to present to the class but that was not too tough a job, just have to keep your fingers crossed that you would manage to bring up an attention-grabbing question that allows the whole class discussion to facilitate itself and drag on for at least quite some time. My second presentation failed at that, due to the ridiculously tough paper that I chose that no one in the class could fully understand it, well except for the lecturer. We should also participate in the discussion during each class presentation to gain participation points as well. That was rather easy until you find out towards the end of the semester that he actually writes down the valuable points that you bring up during the class discussion and check off at the box several times that you have "talked".

The last requirement of the class was to write a seven page literature review with at least 10 empirical studies as reference. Now this was mind-blowing. Going through all 10 studies, opened up on Adobe was tough enough. Added on to that was the actual paper that you have to write in APA format. Going back and forth a million times between the articles and Microsoft Word was hectic enough to make a MacBook Pro lag a little (without any other background programs like Chrome running). I think after spending approximately 24 hours excluding other activities such as eating and sleeping, I managed to put a period to the paper at an 8 1/2 mark. What came after was the front cover and the reference page that added the numbers to 12 pages. The draft came back looking pretty with only several grammatical errors, which I have to fix for the final paper. Oh how easy was that to secure full marks for the final paper!! Definitely A for that paper. Hopefully A for that class.

Anyway, I digress. After submitting my paper, Dr. Morales leaned back into his big black office looking leather chair and looked at me. "Thank you for joining my class this semester, you were a great student. I am really happy to have you as my student this semester. You write really well. You are the best student in the class. You impress me." These words mean so much to me. SO MUCH! To be able to get a lecturer to say those words to you is beyond imaginable. Not to mention that I am an Asian. I am really glad I chose to come to SUNY Plattsburgh in the first place. Despite it being a small school in a small town, I was able to get all the attention that I needed from my lecturers and I don't think that I would be able to get a lecturer to know me that well and even see the potential in me if I were to go to much bigger and well-known schools that I had been accepted to such as University of Minnesota, SUNY Stony Brook or SUNY Buffalo!

.

Back to being able to write well in English, I really have to thank Blogger for providing me a place to rant since 2006. This has been a really good learning place for me to improve my English writing from dust to pearl in the making. I wouldn't say that my writing is perfect because there is still much more to improve on. My dad has been an angel since I was a young girl, buying me all the Singapore English syllabus grammar books and teaching me so patiently, answering all my what why questions, giving me the same old examples to explain grammar, which were incredibly helpful for understanding (I do use back the same examples when explaining grammar to my other friends whom are learning English).

"Johnny goes to school every morning."

"Johnny always goes to school by bus."

GOTTA LOVE IT!

.

This semester has been a really good one! Really!

I have incredible lecturers. Not to mention the rather lenient Dr. Gordon, who was teaching the SUPER BORING Library class, he made the class easy to get an A, plus, I actually learned some research methods from that class!

Dr. Wendy was an angel. Her usual classes were nothing tough, just printing handouts and going to class to take down GOOD notes. Exam was based SOLELY on the things that she talked about in class. Nothing surprising and she was always there to help you get good grades. Took both Cognitive Psych, Learning and Memory under her at the same time and I really liked those classes!

Husband of Dr. Wendy would be Dr. Mansfield. Took his class on Gen Psych Lab last semester and I had a blast! Ended up with a 99.48% out of 100%. So good that he invited me (when I was in Chicago) to do research with him through an email! Accepted his invitation and this semester was rather interesting doing research with him on Low Vision reading with Abbreviations. Always energetic and bubbly, that lecturer, with his lovely British accent never fails to make your attention drift away. A great motivation for you to do well in class too!

Hoping for another 4.0 GPA this semester, continuing the trend of last semester. Fingers crossed. To date, three of five subjects has been confirmed. More to come!

"Success means having the courage, the determination, and the will to become 

the person you believe you were meant to be." - George Sheehan

Welcome to my life pretty Summer days!

Note: Oh gotta love those pretty dandelions :P

With much love,

Pei Ning

bruised-

Dota Theme Songs

Oh no, I don't play Dota. This time, I have no choice but to get stuck in between people who do, people like my brother and his friends.

Right now, we are just waiting for Cheng Kang to get off work so that he can treat us to some nice Froyo and off we go to dinner before going to play basketball.

For some of you who don't already know, I am now in Des Moines at my brother's place for the winter break

.

13th Jan, 2012

a week ago,

Approximately 11.50am...

I stepped down the Greyhound bus as I arrived at the bus station at downtown Des Moines. Spent the last few days in Chicago, IL touring around that windy city. Oh I can tell you the experience was so diverse and intriguing, frustrating at the same time. Updates coming your way as soon as I get hold of the pictures that I have taken.

I was literally exhausted after the last few rather hectic days in Minneapolis, extreme foot walking around downtown Chicago for five consecutive days and dreadfully long bus rides before arriving at this so called cornfield city :D

Thinking that I would be able to drop dead on the bed and rest for the night and the rest of the day of next, I was wrong. I was driven out to Walmart with the guys to get groceries and then back to brother's second home to hang out with the guys. No doubt that they are really fun to hang out with after a week chillin' with them doing things, but I was desperate for some adequate rest.

That was not all. Despite going to bed at about 3.30am, I had to wake up early in the morning because we were all heading out to Seven Oaks near Ames to ski! Rather thrilled with that idea but still doubting my body's capacity for energy drainage.

Skiing seems like a three year once thing to me. So periodical. The first time I was introduced to this sport was when I was in a tour in Korea. Second was when I was in Japan, with my host family and those four young girls. Now, the third, was with my brother and his friends.

They were rather fascinated about the zig zag ski pattern and were trying to master it. Well, I was just testing the waters again after so long and my first slide down the steep slope was definitely exhilarating. Oh the adrenaline rush was incredible! After a while, I was just sliding down the slope without wanting to try otherwise, afraid that I might be injured.

Seeing some small kids being able to do so much better than I, gave me the motivation to want to try the zig zag pattern. After the first try, I was starting to get it and was ecstatic!
As night falls, I decided to do ski one last time before switching to learning snowboarding. While I was sliding down the hill... *WHAM* I fell so hard my chest hurt like crazy. For a moment, I felt like I tergegar my brain and was too dizzy to do anything. All I did was kneeling down on the snow blanket and stare at the ground. I was crouching like a statue for almost a minute with my fist, pressed firm against my chest as if to stop the agony.
From a distance, I heard someone calling out to me, those going up the cable, "Hey miss, you alright?"
"Yeah I am. No worries."
"You sure? You don't look fine."
"Yes I am fine. I'm fine."
When I finally looked up, I saw all my ski equipments scattered all over the place. Tried to recall the fall but all I could remember was me falling facedown and the impact was great.
As I am typing this, my chest still hurts like a bitch when I press slightly hard on it. Still does when I sneeze. Bad. Bad
,

Snowboarding was yet another short episode of this outing. Was hard.
Started at bunny hill and after twice sliding down halfway the slope, I went on to the steep hills.
I guess I could slowly slide down by doing it horizontally, but I certainly do not know how to control the direction I am heading to. Kept on falling down it pisses me off. Sore butt after the whole thing and especially my left wrist, which I kept on using to support my body weight when I fall.
Overall was fun. Enjoyed it. The next time I go I will do snowboarding.
Did I mention?
Girls who snowboard are smokin' hot! Oh nooo... Too sexy :P
.

The next three days was hurting all over. No doubt. Yet, no regrets *:)

great success comes with great determination


EvelynLee

kill joy;

Sunday Morning by Maroon 5

12th Jan, 2012

Today was hell.
Started out with some pretty damn good typical American breakfast and some snow flakes floating down from the clear sky above. Despite the colder temperature, I really thought it was going to be another awesome day. Guess I was wrong.
Before we headed out, Kate was complaining about her tummy feeling weird and till now, we still have no idea what happened. Food poisoning? Indigestion? Remain unknown.
Fifteen minutes into walking towards Millenium Park which was about 30 minutes away without snow, 40 minutes away with snow as obstacles, my boots were soaked with water. Feet became rather cold and started numbing after a while. Not fun. Millenium Park feels so far suddenly as the snow fall became heavier as the minute ticked past. After a while, it feels like the snow was just attacking us! It was a snow storm damn it! A snow storm! Too late to turn back or take the bus because we were there already at Millenium Park. Could barely see the Chicago reflective bean with all the snow falls. Even opening the eye through all the snow and strong wind was so tough and what more taking pictures. Managed to snap a few shots and time to keep the camera back into the bag. Pretty numb hands too!
The snow gotten even heavier by the time we left Millenium Park, heading towards Field Museum of Natural History which was another half an hour away. I tell you, that was one hell of an experience despite the freezing toes and strong wind. Route was pretty straight forward but still was holding the map to navigate a little just in case we took the wrong route and lead to a longer walk than necessary in the cold. Was pretty funny because it reminded me of the movie "The Day After Tomorrow" where the father was struggling to make it past the hurricane to get to his son. Was rather cool.
When we finally saw the museum, barely visible despite being rather close, we rejoiced! Again, it was like seeing food for the first time in many days for a starving person. Imagine how warm and cozy it would be in the museum!
Coming back out to the cold to head back was tormenting. We took the bus back, stopped by a restaurant that we found the food delicious, Portillo's Hot Dogs and Barnelli's Pasta Bowl for dinner. Bed never felt as comfortable ever. Took some effort to dry my shoes then lights off.

13th Jan, 2012

Morning!
Again, delicious finger-licking good American Breakfast with authentic hash browns, egg, sausage patty and toasts. Walked down to Navy Pier felt like forever. Again, boots got wet. Nothing much till we dropped by The Cheesecake Factory. YUM!!!
Ate the first quarter of it and packed it away due to time constrain. Gobbled up the rest of it while waiting for the bus to Des Moine at the Greyhound Station :P

Des Moine here I come!
Brother Lee!! :)

Pei Ning

two weeks;-

Everybody Knows by John Legend

Two weeks into a brand new year. Have you been keeping up with your resolutions?

Two weeks into a brand new year. Have you had any impressive breakthroughs yet?

Two weeks into a brand new year. Have you experienced any extraordinary events yet?

Two weeks into a brand new year. Have you changed into a better person than before?

Two weeks into a brand new year. Have you loved more?

.

I know that some of you may have already started a new school year or even a new semester. If you haven't, I believe you will soon enough. Mine will start in two weeks time, that leaves me another half a month. This winter break as some of you may have already know through my previous posts, that I have flown from Plattsburgh to the midwest, Minneapolis, Minnesota to visit my friend. For that, I get people asking me why.

"Why Minnesota? Seriously? Don't you know that it is much colder over there?"

Also, I get people giving me funny comments.

"Minnesota? A lot of Vikings there." (you'll understand if you watch American football frequently)

"Oh Minnesota. Mall of America!"

Well, my reply would be that the residence hall closes so I had to go somewhere and I am taking this opportunity to travel around the US and am starting with somewhere I have place to bunk in.

Two weeks after, I decided to explore more of the Midwest by taking the Greyhound bus down to Chicago.

I would say this trip was a very well planned one as we carefully scanned through all the potential touristic spots and slowly prioritize on those which we can nicely fit into our itinerary. Of course, we did not forget about checking the weather forecast and decided to arrange for more indoor activities like visiting the museum for colder days.

As of the end of my Chicago trip tomorrow, I will be heading down to Des Moine, Iowa to where my brother is, approximately 7 hours bus ride from Chicago. It is a small town as well, but I guess it is spending more quality time with the brother and his friends while we do fun and silly things together. Time will eventually be well spent over there perhaps

.

Two weeks into a brand new year. It is all going great except for a few blue moments, which I think only takes up a small percentage of my overall happy moments :)

What about you?

xoxo

Evelyn

panic-,

Mendelssohn piano Concerto No. 1 by Yuja Wang

I believe this year is going to be interesting.
Started out great, then few days into a new year, I got locked out of the apartment room. Great eh?
It started with Amanda's apartment having no wifi at all so I had to go down to the lobby to have internet connection. At first, she came down with me with the reason of her liking the environment there. After approximately an hour, she left me and went back up. I was so engrossed with browsing the internet especially listening to songs on YouTube that I totally lost track of time. When I checked the time at my watch, it was showing 3.00am (New York time), which means 2am already! I panicked! Oh you don't know how badly I panicked.
I turned off everything at such great speed and flew back to the room just to find it locked. I braced myself and knocked on it a few times, harder as I went. Besides the sounds of my heartbeat thundering against my ribs, all that was there was the faint sounds of the vent coming from inside of the apartment room and the echoes of the roaring sounds of my knocking.
I was seriously petrified. I was afraid that someone might hear my knocking and gets irritated by it and file a complain that might get Amanda into trouble. I was fearful about the unfriendly, forever scowling security guard who makes his rounds and happen to bump into me, an unauthorized resident making noise at such hour. I was terrified that I might get Amanda into trouble in whatever ways that resulted from me being locked out. At the rate of my knocking goes and the outcome of it, I was completely apprehensive about me being able to get in and sleep on the bed that night.
I went back down and tried using Gmail to call Amanda's phone but it kept on diverting into voice mail. That pissed me off a lot because that was the only other way to get in besides knocking, which was not a very wise move. I then logged on to Facebook to see if Derrick was on so that he can try too but he wasn't. Mitchell was though. Totally dragged Mitchell into the water asking him to call Derrick.
Jimmy was being nice though. Talked to me and understood my situation, offered me to stay over at his place and even offered to come get me. Well, wasn't quite a big fan of doing that actually. Decided to give another try, hoping that it will not yield the same result.
Again, I prepared myself to another failure. Took a deep breath, held it in for a while and exhaled heavily. There goes. I knocked as loudly as I could, feeling my knuckles hurt so incredibly from the immense impact against that wooden door. After a while, I heard responses coming from the inside. My heart skipped a beat. I continued knocking just to make sure I was not imagining anything.
Oh how relieved I was when I heard "What's going on?" a rather sleepy voice. I literally smiled to myself. At the back of my head, I was screaming with joy!

So apparently, Amanda left the door open for me but somehow it mysteriously closed.
The whole experience was rather traumatizing for me. It was tragic.
Here I am sitting at the same place and the creepy security guard just past me o.O

*jeng jeng jeng*

LeePeiNing

A non-white Christmas.

Back to December by Taylor Swift

Hey there! Guess what? I am excited, rolling in Minneapolis, Minnesota at Amanda's place!

In less than three weeks time, I will be happily heading further down the middle and exploring the midwest. Definitely not fearful of the extreme cold I will be facing. Bold and naive.

It was Christmas Eve just thirty minutes before and now, it is Christmas Day according to US midwest time, 12.30am. I am just sitting on Amanda's desk, facing the window decorated by a beautiful pink and white shade of curtain, tied at the middle by a sophisticated dragonfly looking silver hair pin.

Opposite of me is just another solar powered apartment called Solhaus. All but two of the windows are dark. Everyone has gone home to reunite with their families, except "some of the poor international students who has nowhere to go", I quoted John, a Korean who led the bible reading at a Pastor's house the day before Christmas Eve

,

I have never experienced Christmas in such a meaningful way before. Well, one of the more interesting way that I celebrated Christmas was with my parents and one of our used to be close family friends. On Christmas Day, we would gather in my house's living room with all the lights turned off. We will sit around the table where a few candles were lit, just bright enough to see each other's faces. We will then start the intriguing 'present' hunting using merely the torch light and a strip of clue that my father will provide us with. All was really fun as we got to experience the suspense of hunting for the present and opening the beautiful Christmas present wrapper so gently, with the fear of destroying the adorable prints on it. I love it I love it I love it! I just miss those times and I miss my family terribly now. My old man and my loving mother, slowly I realize as I was leaving to the US and now finally, a great deal miles apart from them, that they are slowly growing old as my age gradually increase from a single-digit to two-digits then the first numeral turns from one to two.

I digress.

This year for winter break, I decided to drop by Amanda's place and check Minnesota out. Indeed, it is a great experience, despite my only first week here and haven't really done much (since Amanda was having her finals). The first night I was there, I was brought downtown to a holiday parade sponsored by Target, a parade called Holidazzle. It was rather ordinary for me but it was really heart-warming to see families, college students all gathered at the side of the road, anticipating enthusiastically in the bitter cold weather. I was shivering all the way. Did I not mention how I was stuck in the cold for one whole hour in front of Plattsburgh International Airport at 4 in the morning? I was amazed to find an airport closed, especially one that is called "International". I guess the cold got to me and I was left feeling cold no matter how warm it was indoor. It was one hell of an experience though.

I digress.

The following night, I was invited by Cassandra to a Christmas service. I did not feel very belonged there as the people there did not really attempt to spark a conversation with me except for David, another Malaysian guy doing his PhD at U of M. However, I did not regret going there as I was exposed (in detail) to how Jesus Christ was born in Bethlehem as according the Bible. Yesterday night, I was joined by many other international students for a bible reading session. In there, I felt welcomed. After the session, we headed downtown to check out the Christmas Lights. It wasn't very awesome, but the company was incredible. It was also the day where I discovered that Minneapolis is actually a birth place for Peanuts. You know, snoopy, kinda thing.

Today was special. I met up with Qing Han in the afternoon at Tea Garden. Tried some rather overrated Bubble Tea (but it was still okay).

At night, with the company of Darren, who looks so unbelievably like Phil Seong, we went for dinner at one of the few restaurants that remained open. Even McDonalds was closed for Christmas Eve. Can you believe it? Well, the restaurants that were open were majority run by Chinese, efficient people.

Hahahaha... After that, we attended a Christmas Mass at a Catholic church called St. Lawrence. It was all cool!! Great experience except when everyone started doing the same gesture except for Amanda and I. Well, Amanda haven't really attended Christmas mass before.

JoJo and Darren :)

It was overall a great experience! Met awesome people including Darren, JoJo, Ceria and a few others. I am really satisfied with my experience in Minneapolis so far. Gonna tour around the place soon!! After everyone revive from home due to the Christmasy thing thing going on :D

Oh well, it is kind of late right now. Till then??

Merry Christmas again!

Toodleloo~

EvelynLee

Trick or Treat!

Captains and Cruise Ships - Owl City

31st of October was Halloween. That was something that i know from coming to the US.

Yes. I did not know the exact date of Halloween before coming to the US. Just three weeks before Halloween, my RA began to put up some cool stuff decorations along our hallway

Well, there's still some in the bathroom...

Anyways, the highlight of Halloween was all about looking out for awesome costumes to put on for that big day. Well, for some girls, slutty and skimpy costumes despite the numbing cold weather out. Yes. People are this crazy in the US.

Being new here, I wasn't quite into the getting a costume thing. Plus, they cost quite some money and I have already exceeded my budget for the previous and present month. So no costume over there. We went to the mall to hunt for costumes though, and I took some pictures with the possible overpriced stuff that I would like to have.
Elmo for the most of it :)

Too bad Halloween falls on the Monday, or we get to stay up late and enjoy some of the candies that we harvested and chat all night long. It would be fun.

Four hours before heading out for Trick or Treat, I was still indecisive about what I was going to be. I was thinking maybe work on my formal outfit and be a school girl? Or just go straight out like that. It was down to three hours before and I had to get ready for my last class of the day, Critical Reading class with Bryan. When I was tying my hair up into a pony tail, I snapped out of the fog of indecisiveness and decided that I should tie my hair up into a pony tail that hangs down on the right side of my head. I shall be a little girl then!

"So any of you doing anything tonight? Trick or Treating maybe?" Bryan asked at the end of the class.

I went "ME! ME! ME!" Oh shucks, the typical me. Of course, flashing that brilliant smile of mine all the time while saying that and after.

(in fact i went "ME! ME! ME!" yesterday on a Networking event, so loudly that i won myself a nice pair of t-shirt. great job girl)

The moment my class ended, we headed straight out for Trick or Treating. In the dark, in the cold, merely relying on the dim street lights and the lights penetrating the sheer curtains of those houses, we walked the neighborhood Trick or Treating.

So, how would you know if the houses are available for Trick or Treating? Apparently, if the lights of the houses are on (the house is bright enough), they should be participating in Trick or Treating. Well, at least giving out candies for people like us.

So, how would you collect the candies?

Uncle Joey said,

"You can use your pillow case!"

True enough, it was more than enough to contain everything. The Halloween bucket that you can buy from Walmart or Target is not too bad as well. Some Halloween feel to it, but not quite practical if you were aiming to get a whole loads of candies *shakes head*

The whole Trick or Treating went extremely well. I was skipping around happily, feeling glad that I actually decided on being a small kid than anything else because I simply can be me! How easy that was! But most of all, I was kind of starving, deprived from food since the afternoon when I last ate a piece of garlic bread and some non-filling small slice of pizza. Algonquin Dining Hall's food sucks to the core. I swear it does.

Living up to the spirit and fun of Halloween,

Hahahaha...

Pei Ning