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so many things have been two years, how much has change and what has not?

what are the ultimate causes of regret?

Despite not really liking the topic of the conference much, I'm really glad I did go to Harvard. Lynn the president said on the first day the reason why she continued to do HCAP for four years even though it was draining and it took up an unreasonable amount of time was because of the bonds forged and the indelible memories etched every single HCAP she did. At this point, in the plane back to Singapore from Harvard, I really have to agree. The bonds I forged with the Harvard kids, Hui especially, is something I don't think I can ever forget anytime soon. I've been to many conferences, Stanford, Berkeley, Istanbul… Yet all these times I went with Singaporeans and I was still very much in a comfort zone. HCAP put me out of that—I had to live in the common room of Hui and her five room mates and two house-boyfriends. I have to admit that I would love love love to have a room—but upon introspection I think that I'd still rather want the experience I got. Staying in the common room meant I got to meet all of Hui's five room mates: Maddie, Amanda, Yvonne, Zane and the pretty girl from Canada— all of which were freshmen, four of them really sweet while one of them was nice but kinda temperamental.


I will forever remember fondly Hui asking me (almost every night), regardless of the time, be it 10pm or 12am, "So, what do you want to do tonight?" And it is in this statement that Lynn's initial musing of hanging out late, after the arranged schedule, even though we were dead tired, became real to my experience. On the first night Hui went clubbing without me, since I was tired from the 24 hour plane ride. On the second night Hui brought me to the river… I will forever remember the beautiful bed of snow on the river bank, Hui and I musing about psychology, philosophy and Descartes. Other nights we went clubbing, played board games (taboo, with the Singapore-Harvard delegates), Valentines' Day Mixer, went to a weirdo futuristic themed house party and on the same night later on to a HCAP house party too packed and mambo-like to be true.


On the last night, Hui and Julia brought me ice skating in the Harvard Law School. It was a small ring, but it as a good skate—skating anticlockwise round and round never got so fun. We spent almost an hour later trying to get jumping photos on the ice-skating ring and in front of the I-have-piss-on-me John Harvard statue, after bubble tea. In Harvard Square, pearls in the bubble tea are called boba! 

I also went to see Steven Pinker which was no doubt the academic highlight of the trip for me. I was very shameless in getting him to sign my book and take a photograph with me. I have been thinking that for my ISM research and thesis I might be moving towards the study of language and the mind, or the evolution of language. Call it an epiphany of something but I'm getting quite pissed over my indecisiveness—I can no longer give the excuse that I am only in year 2—because I AM IN YEAR 2 SEM 2!!

I got quoted in the Harvard Crimson and Lee Hong Yi showed us around the ugly MIT campus.

On the Sunday we had a free day so fats and I had an arrangement to go to Rhode Island. So we did, Fats, Ming Yang, her new boyfriend, and I went down to Providence. We went to the Rhode Island School of Design's Museum of Art—I really liked the Greek, Roman, and ancient artifacts. Come to think about it I have never seen Greek artifacts before. So exciting! After that we went to take pictures at this beautiful site we stumbled upon when driving. It had such a great view of people-scarce Rhode Island on a Sunday. And then we went to this really expensive seafood restaurant which was really good. But I still feel very very very bad that we couldn't finish our food.

Prettty! Spooner street!

Lobster Bisque! Our Bowl turned out really big:(

After lunch, which by the way took forever and that's why we were so full, we went to the Rhode Island City Hall. It's so beautiful, that building—although fats said that in DC there're many buildings like that. City Hall had a park in front of it and though the hour or so we spent jumping on the steps of the City Hall we only had to share it with five other people! Yay… The building's charm was enhanced by the fact that there was nobody there and it was Rhode Island's only impressive building. I had so much fun with fats and MY jumping hurhurr. So MY had to leave early and we dropped him of at Logan International, not without our little GPS screwing up on us a couple of time and us getting lost.

JumP!!!

Jump again!! I look like a star fish!!

After we dropped MY off at the airport, Fats and I went to downtown Boston—initially wanting to look for Copley Place for shopping and then later driving through Berklee College of Music just to see what it was like. We ended up, later, driving past Berklee FIVE TIMES because we kept going in circles trying to find Prudential Centre and some sort of car park. All I can say is Berklee looks like one boring campus—its in the middle of nowhere and I saw a total of… two buildings. Haha. According to Dearie its supposed to be very happening but I shall give him the benefit of the doubt because its bitterly cold in winter. Haha!

Berklee has a Pathetic Campus.

Fats and I almost knocked this black woman down and it was so intense. She was crazy lah, didn't even react AT ALL. Thank god she didn't stop walking and that her friend saw us and stopped walking. Sigh. The day ended with Fats and I sharing a slice of Godiva cheesecake from the Cheesecake Factory to Drops of Jupiter. Fucking Heavenly!!

Godiva Cheesecake omg!

Fats had to drop me off wiggles after that.

These one and a half weeks I think I have grown, if not substantially at least somehow. I tell myself that if I am ever back in Boston again (assuming Deon will be there I definitely will), I will look Hui up and I will step foot in beautiful beautiful Harvard again.

So here my trip to Massachusetts ends. 

OMG I AM SO CUTE> KBYES

I went for a Jewish shabbat today and drank a very small cup of wine that everyone had to drink. NOW I HAVE RASHES. MAN! what are the chances....

anyway harvard has their own pub (its more like a club actually) and it was fun!

AND MY NAME IS IN THE HARVARD CRIMSON! HURHURHURHUR

AND I FREAKING WENT FOR A LECTURE BY STEVEN PINKER!! I was so shameless-- I asked him for an AUTOGRAPH, a photo and called him a celebrity. OMG
No shit this is the best thing tt has happened to me all week!!

I fought with one of the delegates on my team today. I feel kinda shitty but I dont feel bad about the quarrel because he thought I was being mean when i wasn't, so whatever. If anything I don't think I'm being mean when I told two of them not to debate over something so insignificant. Actually quite peeved at how inefficient our  team is. It's just that we've been selected to go to Harvard becuase we're supposed to be 'good enough'. apparently not. we don't take things serious enough but then again its just me demanding for efficiency so you can ignore my whinings, haha.

On a brighter note, I got interviewed by the Harvard Crimson today! I said really brainless stuff, because she asked me about the harvard republican/democrat debate (which I admit i kinda tuned off and probably did not get dr don's version of what a gist is). So I shall show you guys when my name and maria's get quoted on the Harvard Crimson! no shit!

We also played taboo with the harvard kids. funfun! they have such nice dorms. damn!

Being in Harvard IS actually kinda cool, you get to meet Harvard students (who btw arent very superhuman-special-extremely-geniusy), get to hang out in their super pretty campus and get beautiful beautiful snow!!!

Although i am freezing my ass off, I am having a GREAT TIME!!!
Yesterday, I went to a meeting with Hui (my host) at one of their beautifully quaint libraries for an event they're hosting-- Jet Li is coming to Harvard on monday and so they need to settle logistics. Ah, these meetings arent very different from ours, except they don't digress that much and they speak in their cute lil american accents!! Later on we went down to boston for shopping, I really wanted to go to Berklee but we didn't get a chance to. It's okay dearie can show me around the next time!
 
We ended up at an akward Singapore-CNY party at MIT and then the prime minister's son showed us around MIT. It's a really ugly campus. It is sterile. HAHA well, its notrious for being ugly and I am telling you it is. then again after taking NUS into consideration I believe i should shut up.

At ten I took a walk with Hui to the river-- it was awsome, but I could't get any good pictures out of it. I think my camera really sucks and I want to change it but I am BROKE. I want a professional camera! YES PLEASE!

Hui also brought me to meet a friend at another dorm-- we were in a guys room and one guy was musing john meyer's comfortable. It was pretty cool. I was later told the other girl in the room called Amy is the best clarinetist in the world. Ah, not that i'm being skeptical/untrusting but I believe, being a muscian myself, that "a best clarinetist in the world" doesn't exist. she must be pretty good though. The friend Hui brought me to see SANG OPERA. the boy on the couch and her broke out into john meyer again!

I have made a nest in Hui's common room-- she has six housemates and it gets akward sometimes. But its a good experience, a great one in fact.

Today I went for high mass (my first catholic mass!) and down to boston to visit the aquarium. fishes fishes fishes. all I could think off was a piping hot grilled dory.

I AM VERY TIRED. hence the arupt endings. whatever, eat yourself if you're unhappy. Also, since I am in Harvard I might as well be a nerd, I NEED TO EDIT MY PAPERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1

P/S: Harvard's Lunch is like Hotel Buffet. NUS HALL FOOD SUCKS

So far its been one of those chillout semi-productive evenings, where your itunes coincidentally spews chillout music like corrine may, the sorts.

Vietnam was a beautiful place; sentiments havent yet settled so i'm still undecided how I feel about vietnam per se.

This semester is going to be exciting because
(1) I'm taking biosemiotics. Today Dictator Don claimed he wasn't totalitarian and I heard Maria and Eisen snicker over my shoulders.
(2) I'm going to Harvard for a week or so, icicles in my hair please! (and facing the consequences of missing so many classes and CNY, boo)
(3) I'm on the editorial board of USP's inaugural undergraduate research journal.
(4) My paper is going to be published in the same journal!
(5) I'm writing a review of Homeclub for Infusion.
(6) I'll have to settle SEP stuff [and pray so hard my place in Berkeley is secure]
(7) There's gonna be lots of sex-talk this semster (a. gabriel is still in school, b. i'm taking evolutionary psychology)
(8) I'll be seeing the most number of MPs in a week or so when the Harvard students are here (they always get very big shots in Singapore to speak to them).

ooh. i just really need some sleep you know?

oh yes i'm turning 21 soon, which means all my friends are too. that means.... lotsa parties this year! and i cant believe i'm missing CNY this year.

2007 was the year of travel fatigue(oh irony), political awakening and chummy good times. It was the year i went to Bangkok twice, Japan, USA, Taiwan, Indonesia, Cambodia and South Korea. It was the year i took democratic possiblities in Singapore and fucked my mind upside down (and then felt really good about it after). After dem poss, Singapore seemed so much bigger, so much deeper. It was the year the junta turned guns onto their beloved monks, it was the year butto got assasinated, it was the year obama still has to battle his own indonesian-crisis, the year chee soon juan got me an A+. Also the year the government used a facebook group as incriminating evidence. haha

Twas the year i learnt that being critical about the PAP doesnt mean I am anti-PAP (was a hard lesson okay).

2007 was daniel goh and gabriel and jabir and i walking down the streets of berkeley talking about toilets, everything about shit and blood after drinks and a beautiful springlike weather i was unable to enjoy much because i had no clothes. Was the first time waited at an airport in the USA all alone for chris! 2007, i met chris and aileen!


2007 was when i climed a berkeley mountain and almost died (but i will still do it again because the view of san fran was fantastic). It was when i climed a ruin in Kok Ker and almost ALMOST died(same same but different). i will still do it again because it was sooo indiana-jones.


2007 was the first year i took a 70m vertical drop in Korea. First time i skied. First time i saw snow. First time i touched snow.


2007 was a year eusoff's e block girls got a bit rowdy. got a bit nerdy and friends crazy.


2007 was screaming at deon and my mom on the streets of bangkok (and the subsequent guilt).

2007 was cooking sprees with deon, movie marathons with deon, dog-browsing with deon, sleeping at 4am with tohtoh. I DISCOVERD THE POINTY LIP in 2007!


2007 was when i got my driving license.

2007-- also the year of the penis.

was a year of great opportunities and happy chances.
Everytime this time of the year comes, i find regrets. but pip pip! this year's been a year of good stuff. no regrets, only things that could have been but were not are not and will never be. This year I'm just really thankful for all the people who've been beside me all the time. The good times, the bad, the emo times, the sorts.

My Bandies: i always tell deon that we're a very blessed couple, to have so many mutual friends who care for us so much, despite our disagreements, my super bitchfits and all the nonsense deon and i dump on you guys. thanks for 2007, for making time for alumni/SH7&8 because thats the only thing we have left in common, for making sure each of us aren't alone on christmas, on new yr's eve and on (most) of our birthdays:) (i think that's the best any friend can do, even if it means playing mahjong until i really cannot tong and watching 5 movies in a night. ESP SAW ONE,TWO, THREE, FOUR). i want to tell you guys i love you, but after considering the fact that you guys made me watch saw 1/2/3/4: YOU ARE SICK SICK PEOPLE.

JELLY BEANS!!!!

Deon: I love you, I dont think there's much else i can say. Because you go "that's a red one!" when it hurts, because you fart in your sleep and because you farted TEN TIMES in 3 hrs last night. because you relish marcus's racist jokes, because you get the movies i want to watch (realllllyyyy?), because you buy food for me when i have no food to eat, because you made a seasoning-less omelette for me with red onions that turned out to look like scrambled eggs, because you buy me flowers even though i dont like flowers, because you buy me toys even though i told you not to, because you drive me everywhere, because you lend me your psp even though you need it, because you're such a scaredy cat, because you do your pointy lip and scream when i ask you to and because you're so cute, i shall forgive you for putting me in your uncle's car. I LOVE YOU HONEY!!!!

The Gohs: The house has definitely become quieter, given fatty's in boston, yong's growing up and I dont really live at home much during the school term. Rachel's presence is blessed, yup, that deranged baby that brings a smile upon anyone whose life she has touched. These days the only channel on at home is channel 34-- thats how you know she's the little princess, and rightly so. Korea was good for me because i think those seven days i learnt more about my brother, by my own, than in my lifetime. I love daddy and mummy more every year and I miss goh hwee, 2008 will be a better year for us all.

I am supposed to blog about 2007 today, tonight: the last opportunity i'm ever going to get.
but I AM SO SO SO ridiculously ANGRY with deon toh at this moment i have no mood to do anything
sorry guys, hold this year's summary on toh keng yong's forehead.