哲: June 2009

Beginning of this year, I took off a new chapter in my life. A chapter that most working people had nightmares of and for some, it's a chapter where many friends and connections were made. I've never study so hard before and I know the worst have yet to come! Even though it's been hell ever since, lost 5 kgs, I'm grateful that I've been given the chance to study and meet so many new friends. Waking up at 5am and fighting the traffic jam every morning ain't joking matter, but because of this, my first bunch of friends were all early birds that's not staying at residence. Surprisingly, we were a group made up people from many countries! There's Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Scotland, India, Germany & Malaysia. I'm the oldest of all :P
I'm grateful that my friends helped me alot in the beginning of the semester when I'm picking up the pace of studying.
At one point, I guess I got too stressed and fell sick twice in 3 weeks! @_@
Learned that stress management is important!
(Ah...so many things were in my mind during studying but it's blank now..)
Most importantly, now I understand what my course is all about and I'm positive that this a profession I want and more suitable for me than any other professions. I must work hard and not give up no matter how tough the obstacle is!!!
Cindy-jie gave me 2 motivation cards years ago which I find it very helpful, it says:
"CHALLENGE - Unless you spread your wings, you will never know how high you can fly."
"MAKE IT HAPPEN - You can do it..if you put your mind to it."

Picture worth a thousand words....

Only after the semester ends, I realise that I haven't took a pic with my friends. Must do so next semester! Guy on left is Eric, he's a South Korean who wants to study overseas and just happens that his cousin stays here in SA. Guess what's his surname? haha...none other than "Lee" XD

Was travelling back home when we saw this car in front...see that?

We pasted our group 's process design for our first Chemeng tutorial at the front lobby of the building...how embarassing! Everyone (esp. senior students) was having a good laugh at our newbie posters! Grr...

Saw this Freedom Toaster in the computer science building! It's a CD/DVD burner machine XD

First week of 2nd quarter, went to ChemEng camp in Simons Town. Meet at Baxter Theater.

LOL....can't believe that most locals have not taken a train before! Guy on right is Faiz from Malaysia. He was sent to UCT by Petronas. Guy on left is David from Germany. He's under Anglo-platinum. I'm so envious that most of my friends are under a company already. Must work hard and get a bursar!

Simons Town is really layback place with just tourists or retired people so the entire main road (2 lanes only -__-) is filled with just bars and hotels...The buildings are super old and almost every building has their years written at the top. The entire class paraded down the main road towards our camping site.

Stopped at a beach for lunch.

!!!

We were passing through this penguin trail which I didn't walk last december, realising that we can see penguins without having to pay the entrance fees...-___-;

So close! Why did I went to pay for the entrance fee?! Kyaa~

Missing "b"

Lol..at first I thought this is penguin coffins...but it's actually house for the penguins :P

One thing about this simons town is that there's alot of Baboons! They like super clever monkey-chimps? They love stealing stuffs! @_@ This one went into a convenience shop and took something...

Yay! Got my snacks! (I wonder if that's a can he's holding...omg)

Hey buddy..you're just sleeping one night....(btw..he has a suitcase with him)

Yay...after 3km walk...

Murray with his hiking bag...looks like the puppet guy in Naruto...XD

When the guys think this is where they sleeping.....

...they're so wrong! You go camping!

Everyone waiting for group activities to start...sigh...why is there group activities...

Long awaited dinner! Everyone was so impressed by the dinner setup! There's waiter who collects your plates and serve you desert!

Yumz!

Chilling outside after dinner

Gathered in tent to listen to speaker who is an environmental consultant engineer. He is also a musician! After his speech, he rushed off for his performance...how nice! After that, we watched a documentary of Al Gore called "Inconvenient Truth". I become a fan of Al Gore after watching this video! I respect what he's doing and it's really a good documentary!

A bunch of us decided to have a walk back to Simons Town and we took the penguin trail. Actually we should've taken the main road cos there's no light at the trail, but we saw this penguin wandering outside the fence!

Back to the beach again, we saw a seal at the shallow waters! How lucky!

What the...? The most funny part is that there's a pedestrian crossing next to this sign and about 20m after this sign there's a normal one but without pedestrian crossing! -__-;

It was raining quite hard that night and our tent is semi-flooded but no one actually notice that until morning. I woke up finding myself sleeping on water but luckily i'm sleeping in sleeping bag.

Back in main tent for speech by another engineer who told us about his daily life. Challenging and interesting!

On the way back to train station, saw another crazy sign....

There's a naval base here in Simons Town.

On the way home, bro took the wrong road but I guess it doesn't matter....

Back to study again (arr...) tuesday's lab @_@

Social Event?! lol...they know we don't socialize enough...

OMG! Wine! They poured this into a huge bowl for everyone to scoop. One of my friends took 2 cups before going for his chemistry lab....dangerous!

Left campus oneday and saw the entire rugby field in mist...I wonder if there's a match going on...must be fun to play! XD

Physics prac exam! Use this to determine the value of gravity!

Was leaving campus oneday and saw this security guard stopping a group of students swinging fire..dunno what's that called but the group os students explained that they are professionals in that and say they'll show him.

Before he can say no...they started swinging the fire and he simply watched on..XD

Snacks for study for last exam!

Last day of exam, Jiten and I was strolling to the exam venue when we saw beautiful sunrise!

How nice to sit and watch the sunrise...but not on the memorial! :P

One day, the forest next to our campus got on fire...helicopters and firefighters fought the fire for more than 2 days...from far, it looks as if our campus is on fire! The fire went all the way to the top of Devil's Peak!