Impromptu

I am FREEEEEEEEEeeee….. until next tuesday.
Kind of.

But I need to wake up in 3 hours. Then deliver a 1-and-half hour
presentation. Crap.

Weeee~~ zzzz.

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

Sometimes I feel like paying full price for the items AFTER I’ve
negotiated for cheaper in TW…

I just can’t help but feel guilty for making everything cheaper,
especially since for me it’s only a buck or two cheaper for something
that’s already extremely cheap. For the old lady selling the stuff, it
might be a difference of one whole meal…. I do it just for the fun
of it (and get a tiny little practice with mandarin), but it feels bad
because I’m having fun in the detriment of others.

These few days I’ve just stopped asking for cheaper altogether. It’s
really not that much cheaper, AND I get to save some time to shop
more! :)
I’m sure some of you will laugh and say I’m stupid. But whatever. :)

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

Finally done with stupid Physiological Psychology midterm!
I’m sure I did HORRIBLE, despite having used my book during the test
and writing it until my time ran up and it booted me out of the system
(which NEVER happens).

I have absolutely NO idea how I’m going to remember everything for the
final… there’s waaay too much material, and it’s pretty ridiculous
how they actually expect you to know what every single neuron does,
from where to where they go, how they go, and what happens if the
neurons are chopped off. Not to mention all those crazy latin names!
Grrr hate biologyyy!

I’m pretty screwed for thursday’s presentation. It’s a
one-and-a-half-hour presentation… I need to read a whole chapter,
several articles, research online AND build a PowerPoint slideshow for
the class all in one day. Gah!

I can’t wait till thursday… after this I’ll be completely
FREEEEE….. then cram again once I get back on the 25th, sigh! >
So what DID I do over my exchange?? :(

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

One thing that I’m constantly pleasantly surprised about is the
quality of people on exchange. Although Waterloo is known for hosting
the “smartest kids in Canada”, it’s only referring to
book-smart people. It doesn’t really host the most rounded-up
people around, and especially NOT the most social-smart. Most of the
time it’s just geeks who are extremely proficient in their technical
field, but nothing else – except maybe gaming. :P

People on exchange at big universities such as NTU are usually from
the best schools of their countries themselves. They are open-minded
to differences in people, are interested in things around the world,
and are eager to learn many things from other field such as art, music
or sports. And since they know how big the world is, they’re not
stuck-up on their own skills, aren’t arrogant (*cough* like loo
students *cough*), and are humble, but are not full of false modesty.
People who are pleasant to be with, who know how to respect
differences, who are social, friendly and nice. But at the same time,
they are just as ambitious, have their own values that they stick
with, know what they want, and work hard for it.

Most people here speak over three languages, and many even over five
(yes, I’m just “normal” around here :P). A lot of them are currently
on their second, third or even fourth exchange. A lot play musical
instruments, do lots of sports, and participate in many events and
activities. All in all, if the best schools of each country host the
highest IQ people of their area, then the exchange students at
these schools host some of the highest IQ AND EQ students of the
world. And since they are so international, you pretty much can
predict that a high percentage of them will be pretty successful in
life, working at big multinational companies.

Of course, I must say I am pretty biased – it highly depends on the
school you go to (from my experience in the countryside last year…),
and what kind of people you hang out with. There’s also a bunch of
those who are around Asian countries just to pick up chicks
(*cough*Europeans*cough…), whom I obviously don’t hang out with and
are therefore not included in my appraisal in this post.

And finally, of course I don’t mean that I don’t love you peeps back
at ‘loo!
I’m just saying that in general, I am very impressed at the people
here, more so than back at loo, which prides itself for having so many
smart kids. Coming here really made me open my eyes – 大開眼界. After
being 4 years at Waterloo, which charged up my arrogance and
ego-centrism, NTU exchange students have made me open up even more,
and realize that there are so, so many more impressive people in this
world.

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

I’ve been dreaming of getting some black sesame Haagen Dazs ice cream
over here in Taiwan, but to my dismay it seems like black sesame ice
cream is not as popular here as it was in Japan! So out of a whim, I
looked it up online.

Here are some special flavours available in Japan:
http://www.pbase.com/chongma/haagen_dazs

It seems like Black Sesame is a very rare Haagen Dazs flavour that can
be only found in Japan.

NOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! T______T

This will definitely be on my to-eat list for Japan…!! T_T

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

I’ve been going to practice piano around once or twice per week (more
like… whenever I actually go to CLD LOL) for the past couple of
weeks or so, and I’ve recorded myself just so I can listen where I do
wrong and correct myself.

And since they’re recorded anyways… I might as well just throw them up :)

Yiruma – River Flows in You

I must’ve uploaded GAZILLIONS of versions of this already… but I
still am not satisfied with my playing :(
I think I’ve actually gotten a little worse from the last time I
recorded, since I haven’t practiced for over a month -.-

I still don’t play soft enough at some places… STILL tempo problems
(what’s wrong with my BRAIN?!)… overall not smooth enough!
I need to perfect it, argh!

(and sorry, the person in the room next to me was playing the 1 Litre
of Tears song… you can kind of hear it :P)

Liszt – Un Sospiro

I’ve learned this piece since grade 8 (yes, almost 10 years ago!!),
and I’ve never bothered to play it properly. I actually didn’t KNOW
what this piece was SUPPOSED to sound like until a year or two ago,
when I actually looked it up on Youtube… just to find out that I’ve
always played it completely wrong (or rather, in MY OWN style! :P).
Again, I’ve uploaded gazillions of versions of this before, and ALL of
them are pure CRAP.

I think I’ve improved a lot in terms of speed and clarity, but it’s
STILL not clear enough… technique has always been my weakness T_T
Musicality is almost inexistent… gotta work on that AFTER I’m done
with technique!

I’m planning to use this piece as audition for taking the music studio
course back at Waterloo, so I better practice more, cause I have a
looong way to go…

I’m also learning another piece for the audition, but I’m really not
sure whether I’ll be done learning it by January. It’s not too hard,
but with 1-2 hours of practice per week, it’s not really looking
good…

Anyways, that’s pretty much it. Comments & criticisms welcome…
anything that can help me improve! :)

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

It turns out there’s a meteor shower coming on November 17!

Which means I’ll be able to see the stars in the Taipei sky on
November 17th morning, AND the US/Canadian sky on November 18th.

MAAAYBE I’ll be able to see shooting stars all day in the airplane,
too? XD Even though my plane departs from Tokyo at 5:45pm and lands at
Chicago 4:20pm on the same day (yes, I’m going back in time!), so the
sky will probably be light during my whole flight…

I’ll also be flying from Newark to Montreal from 9:35pm to 11:07pm,
but unfortunately it’s not a summer wednesday/saturday night so there
won’t be fireworks… nooo! T_T
One of the things in my “to-do before 瓜-ing” is to watch fireworks
from the plane… just to see how it is lol

Anyways on a slightly unrelated note, I’ve been packing for my return
already, and I’ve already got 2 big luggages. Woah! I didn’t realize
how much stuff I bought lol… I just hope the dried day lilies I
bought in Hualien will pass the customs :(

And now I really gotta cram for my midterm tomorrow + ONE AND A HALF
LONG presentation on thursday + job applications for Boston + all the
crap I need to finish before I leave…

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

Going through all those job applications for Boston Career Forum makes
me want to die. Sooo much essay-style question, all in Japanese… I’m
writing my responses in English, but even then it’s just pure BS.

I hate searching for jobs. :(

Actually, I don’t wanna work altogether. Sobsobsob…

I still have a few e-mails to write up and send out… sigh, so much
stuff to deal with. If I weren’t going to Boston I’d have soooo much
more free time in Taiwan!! T_T

Still haven’t gone to Kenting… Sun Moon Lake… Taroko Gorge…
Alishan… etc. etc. :(

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

I wish they wouldn’t put photographs of actual live human brains in
the Physiological Psych textbook.
Makes me want to throw up every time I read the book…

3 more chapters to go… omg T_T

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09

It’s been finalized.
I just called JAL.

I’m leaving Taiwan for Tokyo on January 9, and leaving for Toronto on
the 14th 11:35am, arriving at Toronto Pearson International Airport on
January 14th, 12:30pm.
Just in time for a lab session (maybe) on January 15th.
And then the hectic crazy zombie Waterloo life will begin again.

Gotta say bye to Taiwan so soon… noooo :(
sobsob I want to cry already… T_T

Posted via email from Life Abroad Formosa ‘09