.:Brutally Honest, Honestly Brutal:. \m/

LETTERS FROM THE LIVING

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Roadtrip number: Two
Amount of anticipation: Plenty
Destination: Beech Mountain, North Carolina
Distance: Approx. 270 miles from Atlanta
Duration: 3 Days 2 Nights
No. of people: 25
No. of people skipping classes for this trip: Some
No. Vehicles: 5
Average cost per person: $120
No. of burnt pockets: 25
Amount of fun & excitement: Tonnes
Amount of adrenaline rush: Undefined
Number of snowfall witnessed: One
Number of crazy people posing near highway exit to experience snowfall: 25
No. of tired and/or bruised bodies, who also enjoyed burning pockets for this trip: 25

Will put up 2 personal videos of my road trip in my next entry!!

Laid to Rest at 5:35 AM;

Friday, January 26, 2007

Will be heading to North Carolina for the weekend to ski/snowboard at the famous Beech Mountain! Anticipating fun & excitement!!! Dun ever think that it has been all play and no work here. Has been struggling to keep up with the fast pace culture at Tech. And I've been burning midnight oil almost every night to turn in homework for grading or prepare for quizzes! So I guess it's a partially deserved break till Chinese New Year then. Meanwhile, whilst praying for journey and safety, just wanna show u my apartment.

Last three pics are taken at the common level, and there's also a mini gym with several machines and weights, but the CRC still rules!!

Laid to Rest at 2:09 PM;

Wednesday, January 24, 2007

I finally managed to attend a church service on Sunday morning! Amen. (Just posting this to assure all of u out there I’m not attending Tom Cruise’s Church of Scientology ok? ) Dawn (fellow GIP mate) and Wenyu (her contact, thanks for the ride dude!), Timothy, Andrew and I, a group of 5 went to the Atlanta Chinese Christian Church and what an experience it turned out to be!

The early service is an English worship service, so the attendance (about 50-70) paled in comparison to the Chinese language service later (approx. 200). Those who attended were mostly college students and young working adults just like YAS, as well as the occasional ang moh who stay nearby or have friends here. Besides getting in touch with a Christian environment, I met more Asians than any other time I had in Atlanta thus far. ABCs, ABKs, ABJs, PRCs, Taiwanese, Hong Kong, Malaysians and Singaporeans – you name it, they are all here.

The place has a modern-day chapel look and the interior reeks of the good-old cathedral design [Culture shock factor #1]. (No photography allowed, but managed to snap a quick one during the sermon!) They began by singing a couple of hymns [Culture shock factor #2] and next come the sermon (they have preaching series too! This time its on praying…) and you’ve guessed it, an Asian pastor for the day! The preaching is quite similar to Trinity, but it ended in less than an hour. The pastor wraps up with a prayer but there is no altar call [Culture shock factor #3].

[Culture shock factor #4] was impressive. After the prayer, the celebration host IC (who recognized us at the entrance as first time visitors and spoke to us before service) became the emcee and made announcements. “Today, we are delighted to welcome so and so from … missionary, and …, Raymond Chua, and my GIP mates’ names, they are a group of exchange students from Georgia Tech.” We were actually introduced to the entire congregation, froze in our seats but managed a feeble wave to the entire crowd and a couple of warm handshakes.

After the benediction, which was the Lord’s Prayer [Culture shock factor #5], we headed to the canteen for a Meet and Greet session [Culture shock factor #6] for donuts and Chinese tea [Culture shock factor #7]! It’s basically a like the Meeting Place for fellowship and catch-up between members of the church. It’s so embarrassing, apparently everybody were intrigued by the “exchange students announcement”, and no less than 10 people came up to us and did some introduction and small talk. This is despite the fact that they were in their own cliques, but took the initiative to know us [Even more impressive Culture shock factor #8]. The preacher, Pastor Thomas, also came forward to welcome us.

It doesn’t end there mind you! We were then invited to join the rest of the people (everybody!!!) to attend Sunday school (not the kids kind where u just talk about bible stories or explanation of the bible) [but still…Culture shock factor #9], and today we learnt about meditation and prayer. It’s like a Tenet class at Trinity, where there will be like a workshop lecturer and practical session where we tried to apply the meditation techniques.

However, this is a more conservative church, and they don’t raise their hands in worship, nor did they speak in tongues and neither did they mouth out their prayers! [Culture shock factor #10,11,12]. I learnt that they are less of the Charismatic/Protestant denomination, but more of the Evangelical kind.

The last bit of the church visit was the highlight of the day! [Culture shock factor #13]!!! They serve lunch like a community, like those in temples in Singapore. Adult members will put $2 in the offering box while the children $1. As for us, since we are first-time guests, we got a free lunch. They serve food like army cookhouse style where they just have rice and a meat dish – which was amazingly delicious! It was indeed an interesting visit!! It left me thinking: Are they really so vibrant and proactive or is it just their nature friendliness??

Here's the spycam shot!

Verdict: Vibrant Atmosphere? Yes and no... but thou shalt not judge!

Laid to Rest at 8:27 AM;

Sunday, January 21, 2007

Its been rather cold from the moment I stepped onto US soil. The temperature has been fluctuating between 10 to 0 degree celsius; mostly at abt 5 degree celsius. We joked that its like Antartica, while Americans say its quite warm liao - compared to other states! Freaks!! Or are we the freaks?! If they dun see snow, it's not considered cold i guess...

The strong winds and dry climate here made the cold even more vicious; especially the mornings! For the record, I've been able to see my own breath nearly every morning (that's a good measure of how good it was man...) and has won at least three layers of clothes when I go outdoors (lesson learnt after shopping and playing soccer with just 2 layers and caught the flu for the last two weeks).

VJ Titanium makes another guest appearance in 2007, dispelling rumours that he is gonna quite the blog music video scene. Here's one rockin track entitled "Cold"!

Static-X - Cold

Note to mum: Please don't click on the "Play" button if u dun like the kind of music I listen to. If u are game enough, do put on the earphones ok, so u can enjoy. Luv ya!!

Laid to Rest at 1:09 PM;

Saturday, January 20, 2007

This outing is basically no-holds-barred, shopaholics gone wild kinda stuff. We had a monotonous 2 hr drive via the interstate for abt 40 miles. Btw, its quite low tech here to the point tolls are collected at gantries like in Malaysian highways, rather than the more refined ERP system in Spore.

Now back to the crazy time spent at the place. It’s made up by small shops or outlets, hence the name, all of which sold famous and even designer products to offer shoppers a all-in-one shopping experience. Namely: Hugo Boss, Kenneth Cole, Calvin Klein, Polo Ralph Lauren, Coach, Liz Clairbone, Tommy Hilfiger and many many more – abt 100 shops in fact!! Here, they offer their merchandise at about wholesale prices, and it’s almost half the retail prices found in departmental stores or shopping malls.

Well, I bought some stuff at Nike and Adidas. The jeans at Gap were damn cheap, like Giordano price like that! Bought some T-shirts from Banana Republic (for some reason, they were not allowed to open a flagship store in Spore). And the catch of the day: A pair of Oakley frames at about 30 to 50% less then the market price in Spore!!! We went on our splurging extravaganza for abt 6 hrs plus walking thru the trove of shops till we literally; and physically dropped! Pockets were burnt in the process but no animals were harmed in the entire masochistic ordeal.

As for dinner, it was a tat special as we manage to find some Asian food near Chinatown. It was not Chinese food but Korean food! It was surprisingly good (hot and spicy…) and value for money. The end of the day, our first ever road trip in US, a long weekend also marked the beginning of real studying!!!

10 academic facts at Georgia Tech that will shock u! Count your blessings now!

Fact#1: Lecture class size are like tutorial class sizes in NTU (varies from approx 20 to 40). Lecturer recognizes u easily and don’t ever think of skipping lectures!
Fact #2: There are no tutorials. But it doesn’t mean it’s a good thing! (Read facts 3 to 6.)
Fact #3: Some modules have quiz every week!
Fact #4: All modules require homework must be handed in, and is graded!
Fact #5: There are still midterms and final exams!!
Fact #6: But everything from homework to quiz to exam have about same weightage! Not to mention term papers and projects!!
Fact #7: Textbooks here are 3 times as much as in Singapore and more often than not, they are compulsory!
Fact #8: Americans/GaTech students also study (mug) like hell!
Fact #9: Americans/GaTech students who don’t mug are freaking smart!!!! (Kaoz -_-")
Fact #10: Everything here is more fast-paced, more stressful and competitive than in NTU!

Laid to Rest at 1:03 PM;

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Yeah! So american to go on roadtrips!! the navigation, the preparation, the process, the end - all so exciting! We "ho-landered" a couple of times too! Thank God for the journey mercy He blessed us with throughout! Wat an awesome experience! The pics chronicled the entire trip. As the cliche goes, a picture is worth more than a thousand frickin' words. So I just typed close to a million words maybe? Nah...

Martin Luther King is a great man!

Laid to Rest at 1:40 AM;