Life is short

I received an email from my professor saying that the graduate student I mentioned in my last post just passed away today. I hope that he will rest in peace now.

Below is his website:

http://www.brettdaniel.com/

*The city I am living in is all covered with snow now as shown in the pictures below:

My first lecture

Today, I gave the first lecture. The lecture is about finding bug in Refactoring tools.I was so nervous since this is the first time I am talking in front of all of students. I realized that my hand is shaking when I am talking. The lecture is relatively short and I finished it in around half an hour. After the class, I had a meeting with my students. Surprisingly, one student told me that he liked my lecture. Another student told me that he found a bug in his code after the lecture today. So, I am happy that my first lecture went well and I hope to gain more confidence in future.

四年过去了

今天我坐在Siebel Center的一个小角落，毫无目的地四处张望。原来，我待在这栋大楼四年了。我发觉有好多回忆都与这栋大楼有关。我在这里哭过、笑过，也曾经在这里向几个要好的朋友道别。我以为我是爱这个地方的，但在四处张望的那一刻，我突然开始讨厌这栋大楼。记得毕业典礼的那一天，我几乎已准备向它说再见了，但是最后我还是得待在这里。到底什么时候我能真的离开这里呢？或许，那个无法实现的梦是我留在这里的唯一动力吧，可是这一切都是值得的吗？

Grading first midterm

It is depressing to reach home at 1am after spending 7 hours in school grading the midterm for the class. I guess that's the disadvantage of living alone.

A Weird Dream

Last night I had a weird dream. A sad one. I dreamt of the PhD student whom I was working with for my senior thesis and whom I was thinking of working with for my research project this semester. He was crying in pain in my dream. He looks thinner than he used to be. The weird part is although he have helped me a lot with my senior thesis, I didn't get a chance to talk to him as a friend so it's quite surprising to me that I will dream of him. When I woke up today, I went to his website to find out if his cancer problem have gone worse. I feel so sad when I realized that he realized that he had a small tumor in his brain and was receiving treatment now. No wonder he is not able to reply to any email this week. I hope that he will get well soon!

Feeling depressed

These few days, I am feeling depressed again. Don't feel like cleaning the house, cooking or eating. Couldn't really sleep well even though I try to sleep early. Maybe I am putting too much efforts into my teaching and grading. Feel so tired all the time. Feel like crying once I reached home. Get even more frustrated when my professor doesn't seem to like the project we proposed. I went to the career fair on Thursday and Friday but I didn't seem to get any positive news even though I spend more time talking to more companies this year.

My First Power Outage

When I was doing some works with my laptop today, the power for the whole apartment suddenly went off. I thought there was some problems with the electric bills or the power box so I waited for a few minutes. Then, I started to feel panic and decide to knock on my neighbor's door to check if they are having the same problem. Apparently, the power for the whole building went off. I wasn't sure how long it will last but since the sky is getting dark, I went to the cafe nearby. An hour later, I came back home with some flashlights in case the power is still off. Luckily, the power is restored when I arrive home. Even though the outage only lasted for one and a half hour, I feel that I was defeated by the power outage. It gets scary when you are living alone as you will imagine having to spend the lonely night in the dark. I guess this is a good experience for me since it makes me realize that it is hard to live alone and to be independent.

PS: I will leave all the lights tonight because I am too afraid that it will go off again.

Fall is coming

Sweet Corn Festival...


The color of the leaves are changing...

A few days before new semester starts

Saturday, 21 August 2010 (Scott Park)

There is a park across the street from my new apartment. It's called Scott park. It has pretty much everything that you can find in a playground for kids. At first, I thought of bringing my
dinner and enjoy the scenery while eating over there. However, I changed my mind and decided to go there for a walk after dinner instead. I sat on the swings while watching a group of people having a picnic on the park. It feels great to sit on the swings since I can enjoy the light wind and the gentle sunlight. I think I will definitely try to visit this park more often!


Sunday, 22 August 2010(Quad Day)
The annual Quad Day falls on a Sunday this year which happens to be a day before school starts. I met my ex-housemate in the Turkish booth so I got a chance to have a coffee with her. She said I looks so different with my new hair color. After that, I met Harshita, a friend who is also a new TA and Master student in Computer Science. Harshita and I walked around the quad and found lots of interesting student organizations. I just bumped into a funny character (as seen in the picture above) while walking around so I took a picture with the cow. The weather is very hot today so both of us felt relieved when going out of the crowd. I hope that I can meet Harshita again for some other interesting events.

Turkish Airport

I stopped at Istanbul around 5 hours to wait for my flight from Turkey to Chicago. It's not really a pleasant experience. I feel like a stranger over there with people looking at me in a strange way. I tried going into the "Bazaar"(as shown in the picture above) and found that most stuffs are even more expensive than those in US. I only bought some food for my ex-housemates.

Things I wish to Eat before going back to US

I went back to Malaysia a few months ago. I have a few things in mind that I wish to it. The list is as below:

1. Tee Nyah kuih-It is a "Hokkien" dishes I manage to find it in pasar pagi. I usually eat it with the syrup provided.
   

2. Naan-I just ate Kahmiri Naan tonight-it has raisin and sugar in it but the raisins on it are not as many as the picture shown above.

3. Roti Canai-I ate it in a mamak store during on of the game in Worldcup. It is too dry so I may try getting a chance to eat it again.
4. Milk tea- I wish to drink as many as possible when I come back but can't drink much because I have tyroid.

5. Curry puff-I get to eat it once I arrived at the bus stop opposite KLIA.

6. Putu Mayong- Bought it when going to pasar pagi with my mum.

The above list is not complete. I will update it once I think of more food. Feel free to leave any suggestion!

最近

最近总是有人问我毕业后的计划。其实，我真的不知道应该怎么回答他们。今天，我又打电话到UMASS,希望能打听些消息.果然不出我所料，他们还是未做出任何决定，而且他们还说负责人请了一星期的假期，看来我只能耐心等待了。等待是痛苦的，之前为了申请博士的事茶饭不思，这几天却开始暴饮暴食，我几乎已经想尽所有办法让自己不再为这件事担忧了。无论结果是好是坏, 我只希望我能早点知道，以做好心理准备。我不晓得我是否有勇气继续待在美国，难道我真的必须放弃我的梦想吗？

Caramel Apple Cake

I have baked my first caramel apple cake during this weekend. I have taken the recipe from the following website:
http://busycooks.about.com/od/cakerecipes/r/caramelapcake.htm
I like the cake a lot! It is soft and moist. Smell great!



PS: Sue Yen, I will keep practicing!

Baking

Recently, I love baking various stuffs for both my breakfast and snacks. I really like eating warm muffins and cookies right from the oven. Below is the stuffs that I have baked so far:

Fruit cake

Chocolate Chips Muffins

Jam Filled Butter Cookies

PS: Sue Yen, I will work hard for our bakery! ^_^

Apple Pie for Thanksgiving

My new room with a Pink theme

How to move?

These few days I have been worrying about moving to my new apartment. First, I need to rent a truck to move the stuffs from the storage to my new apartment but who will drive the truck? Then, I need to worry about how to carry all those heavy stuffs from the truck to my apartment in third floor without an elevator? Sigh..You may think that I am worrying too much but I do need to start reserving the truck if I need one or get some moving help. Plus I will be too tired to move after taking 20 hours of flight.......Sigh...Hopefully I can solve this problem as soon as possible.

暑假就快结束了

不知不觉中，三个月的暑假就快结束了。 大约两个星期后，我就要回到那个既熟悉又陌生的地方了。每一次在漫长的假期结束前，我总会问问自己到底在这段日子里做了些什么。其实，我应该留在美国打打工，在毕业前吸取一些工作经验的。但是，我真的很想念我亲爱的家人，所以我还是选择回到我那温暖的家。或许，在这段日子里，我并没有学到什么新的知识，而且生活也不见得过得充实，但我想我真的需要这段假期歇一歇，要不然一旦新的学期开始了，我就没这个机会偷一偷懒了！希望那些跟我一样在享受着悠闲的假期的朋友能珍惜这段懒懒的日子！ ^_^

Sungkai Hot Spring

The fountain beside us is pumping up extremely hot spring water.

Boiling fresh eggs

My sister and I taking photo in front of the egg boiling place

Inside the private jacuzzi room

Soaking in the relaxing jacuzzi pool

My Belly Dancing Photos and Video (with my lovely sister)