Recap

It's been seven months since I came back here to Urbana Champaign after a long visa wait. I can still distinctly remember the first day, when I went to school to meet my new boss, and he shook my hand and gave a hug, saying it's good to have me back. The first time I entered the lab, I was flabbergasted to see the state of the lab. Everything looks old, worn, laid with a thick layer of dust. The fridge were all occupied with stuff, some of the samples even dated back to 1990s. It was quite impossible to work effectively if I let it remained like that. And so I took about 1.5 weeks to clear most of the things: the fridge (with the help of boss, RM), the workbench, the numerous hungate tubes and so on. Finally, I was satisfied with its current state. The good thing about my current lab is that it is very very very very spacious, spanning across three lab spaces, and I am usually the only active soul around. So Boss RM called me the person-in-charge of lab. Simply because I am indeed the only one around. I love my current lab. When I had the chance to go back to WT's lab in Civil, I thought it was cramped, dirty, and depressing.

I'm still trying to get accustomed to my new boss being a super nice elderly man. Every morning (or rather almost every morning), he will come in and greet me (this sounds weird, I should go and greet him, but heck) and said in his chirpy voice "Good Morning!" and then asked me how's it going. It's stressful on my part because I associate "How it's going" with "Explain your progress for the day", and my day barely started. Even though he may not mean entirely work-related updates, but rather a genuinely "how's my day". But I am not used to having small talks with bosses, and so I pretty hard stammered most of the times or stare blankly at him.

I am also keeping my life here pretty routine, much like what I would do in Singapore. Just that no close family and friends here. Every weekday morning, I will wake up at 715am, then wash up for school, reach school at 8am, then drink my coffee and surf web, start work, eat lunch and work, and then go home at around 7pm (later if my boss is around). Once I reach home, I just surf web, play FB, watch online drama, and sleep at around 1130pm. Most of the weekends are spent alone. On some Saturdays, I will go to school and work in a relaxed manner. Sunday is all about rotting and doing housework.

It's pretty monotonous. And I miss the weekend gatherings or occasional dine-outs with parents. But I made the decision to come here. Although I complain about it, I still have to pull it through....I hope when 2 years is up, I can say goodbye to here in amicable terms with my current boss. And that means I really have to show my results for the current project.