Falling sick in a foreign land

Was hit by a common cold virus on the eighth day into the new lunar year. It's just a common cold, I thought, and paid no special attention to it.

From the initial scratchy throat to runny nose, which developed to extremely thick brownish-yellow mucus stained with traces of blood, tonsillitis, poor appeitite, cough and fatigue. I know this wasn't any more of a funny business. Yet, I thought there might not be a need to see a doctor. Afterall, how can I trust the doctor here?

It's that night, when I stood there brushing my teeth, and I looked into the mirror to see how pale I looked. How weary and sickly I appear before myself. Suddenly, I thought I should look at myself more...for I had visions that it may be my last night, that I might not wake up from my sleep the next day. That I might not be able to make it back to Singapore and see my family. The thought that I don't want to die in Taiwan. It's the first time I ever feel so pessimistic. It's the first time that I felt our own death seems so far, yet so near and inevitable.

I need to get out of here.

Room-mate

Honestly speaking, I don't badmouth on a person that frequently. But my room-mate's really getting on my nerves. She is a nice lady (i suppose), but realle...sharing a room is a task that needs tonnes of patience. And unfortunately, the harder I try to bear with all the differences, the more imbalanced I feel.

1) Sweeping and mopping the floor.
Ever since I checked into the room (refer to my first post from Taiwan), she has NEVER done any housework at all. I sweeped and mopped the floor every Sunday afternoon, while she goes out for lunch with her bf. I scrubbed the toilet bowl and wiped the basin clean. But everytime she comes back, she walked all the way across the room, to and fro, in her shoes. WTH. I don't need her to do the housework, but at least, be considerate and change into your home slippers before you step around the room. She doesn't know I am doing the housework alone. She didn't bother to realize how come the dust does not accumulate and how come the basin is clean every Sunday evening. I think she doesn't bother. Sometimes, somethings do not have to be said. Feel it and be considerate.

The day the earthquake occurred, her senior came to our room, and asked if she needs to take off her shoes before stepping in. Right away, my room-mate responded by saying there's no need, since she hasn't been sweeping and cleaning the room for a looooong time. Yah, indeed. Cos I am the one doing it.

2) Watching my rented VCD
Have you ever experienced someone standing behind your back, for what seems like forever, and watching at your rented VCD. Trying hard to ignore her (I can't), I wanted to watch my rented VCD in peace (which means alone). And NOT having someone looking at the same screen, from behind. At least, get a bloody chair, ask if she can sit down and watch together. I will agree if you ask. Just ASK.

3) Talking in that terribly sweet voice
It's sickening when I have to listen to her talk over the phone with her bf. And it is also sickening that everytime, I have my earphone plugged on while watching VCD, she will still use her sweet voice and try to get my attention. I can't hear her from behind, with my earphones on. Can't she speak normally?!

4) Alarm clock
When someone sleeps at 3am, and aims to wake up at 7am to finish her master thesis, do you think it is possible? She knows she can't for she lacks the discipline, yet she always make sure her alarm clock rings continuously forever and ever. Hey, in the end, I am the one who woke up!! And she is still sleeping soundly.

The moral of the story: don't live with someone who is brought up in a different family as you. Everyone has different living habits.

Miscellaneous thots

I was honored to be addressed as a "xue jie" (senior sister in Mandarin) over in Taiwan. The juniors (good ones) always treat their seniors respectfully, and they really treat me as one who knows my stuff (haha! I "smoke" well...)...It made me think of my antics in Singapore, where I bully my seniors. Kind of ashamed..haha..but I had fun doing that. =P
On one hand, this kind of address made me feel respected...but at times, it lack the rapport to build up a friendship. No?

CNY is coming soon...gosh..9 long days of holiday...scratching my head to think about what I can do alone in this foreign land. I don't like to trouble people, especially during the CNY period when people ought to have reunion as a family. It just feels weird to pay house visit and stay in their home. I don't like that kind of feeling. I guess I am used to being independent...

Review of my past resolutions

It’s 2007. Looking back at 2006, it is indeed a fulfilling and meaningful one. Those were my New Year resolutions set last year:

• I would like to go for my PhD qualifying exams this year and hopefully clear it. Only then, can I tell people that I am a qualified PhD candidate. [Yep…I’ve cleared this hurdle…though without much ease. There were days before the qualifying examinations that I have to endure my boss’ constant bugging and bombardment. There were days when I feel like giving up. But thankfully, I have found the strength to move on.]
• I would like to submit in abstract for the ISME Austria conference and hopefully attend it in August! I would like to get the signature of Craig Venter! [Nope…I didn’t manage to get Craig Venter’s signature…but I heard his speech. It was totally unconventional and set many researchers arguing. I went for the conference as well and learnt a lot…saw a lot and heard a lot. Aiming for the 2008 ISME conference to be held in Australia!]
• I would like to submit in drafts for publishing....I had been constipating too long in this aspect. Time for me to move on. [Nope…my draft is still stuck with my boss….]
• Holiday! I need one... [Lots of holidays….flying to HK, Vienna and now in Taiwan. I guess I cannot complain much]
• Bring myself back to good health. Hopefully I can say goodbye to gastric cramps and headaches.. Time for me to pick up exercising yet again. East healthily and live optimistically. [Opps……guilty about this]

More on my new year resolutions coming soon…need time to think about these.

The first earthquake in my life

For a Singaporean, experiencing an earthquake for the first time in her life is a really uniquely scary thing. Not to mention, two earthquakes that happened in a short interval of 8 minutes. And to add on to it, strong earthquakes with epicenter near to Tainan (Richter 6.7 and 6.4 in Hengchun and Pingtung).

The first earthquake struck when I was watching VCD in my room. The first thought that I had at that time was," Oh shit, is this an earthquake?!". And I sheepishly hurried out of my room to look for my roommate (who was in the TV room at that time), hugging tightly to my tortoise doll. My roommate seems dazed and when she saw me, she assured me and told me that the past earthquake was a pretty strong one. She asked me to mentally prepare for smaller tremors, but told me everything should be fine. Hearing that, I went back to my room, thinking that if this is a strong earthquake, then maybe it wasn't that bad after all. It's true things were shaking horizontally, and I felt a bit giddy, but overall, I thought it was milder than I expected.

Feeling relieved, I went back to my room to resume watching my VCD. Eight minutes later, another earthquake struck. And it is NOT a tremor. Books placed on the table were trembling. The door next to me was rattling loudly. And everything seems to be shaking. Feeling really frightened, I ran out of the room again. And halfway down the corridor, the lights went off and girls started screaming. I have to grope around in the dark for about 1 min before the back-up generator was powered up. Electricity! Life saver! Whoever invented electricity is a genius...

Everyone was scared, foreigners and locals both alike. The security broadcast over the PA system and asked us to be careful of tremors. I quickly packed up laptop and passport into my bag and ran downstairs. Phew...this is definitely an experience.

I was pretty amazed that everything rebounded back so fast. 1 hr later, when I walked down the streets, everything seems so normal. In fact, I was pretty amazed how fast I recovered from my trauma. Like what they say, I am the "lucky" one. Everything that can possibly happen, will happen to me. Damn.

Some unimpt things I have noticed

• Taiwanese gals are more gentle, and they talk with an unbelievably sweet voice. I prefer the outspokenness of Singaporean gals.
• Their English newspaper (China Post) is only about 20 pg thick.
• Taiwanese are crazy over their own politics, but I think they do not really know what is happening in the outside world. Open the China Post and almost the entire newspaper is about their own news.
• Politics in Taiwan is 300X more complicated than in Singapore. Vote-buying is true. There are accounts of such vote-buying given by my labmates here. Not the outright paying of money, but things like giving you extremely good lunchboxes or ferrying you from Taipei to Tainan etc (reminds me of the progress package we have received before the general election this year...hmmm..)
• Their Eslite bookstore (Cheng Pin Shu Ju) which opens 24h and is opened nationwide resembles a combination of Borders and Kinokuniya (I miss both of them). English books are marked at an exorbitantly high price due to the low demand. They have a lot of Chinese translation of the current English bestsellers.
• Their fruits and sweet corns are extremely nice! Very very sweet and cheap. It's the harvest season of mandarin orange, so I have having almost one every night.
• The southern part of Taiwan (i.e. Tainan) has food which is very similar to Singapore. The base of the food is sweet, while the northern part of Taiwan is more saltish. Luckily I am in Tainan. That's why I like the food here!
• Temperature has dipped over these 2 days. Think I have caught a flu. Underestimated the power of wind...sigh.

The day I toured Anping

Dr W and SX drove me to the western part of Tainan (Anping district) last Sunday. It has a lot of sightseeing districts like:

• Anping old streets
  The streets resemble a bigger version of our pasar malam. It’s a long stretch of road selling tonnes of interesting things and the whole street is buzzing with activities. There are foodstalls selling stinky beancurd (not as stinky as the wastewater fed into reactors), offering games for the young and young at heart.
• Matsu temple (Tian Hou Gong)
  Generally, Taiwanese are devouted Taoist/ Buddhist. So the temples are usually grander than those we see in Singapore. This temple is supposedly the first Matsu temple in Taiwan, and naturally has the oldest Matsu statue in the whole of Taiwan within it.
• Anping fort (Fort Zeelandia)
  I had a brief history lesson of Taiwan at this place. It was said that in 1624, the Dutch seized this area and established a military and commercial base. Later in 1661, it was attacked and captured by Zheng He, who sailed down from China after failed attempts to restore the Ming Dynasty. Zheng He lived here ever since then. I was told that the current statue of Zheng He looked in the direction of Mainland China, symbolizing his wish of going back to China and fulfilling his dreams. Later, the area was recaptured by Qing Dynasty, and forced to be given to Japan when the dynasty wilted. The fort that we see now is reconstructed by Japanese and is still in good shape. A lot of archaeological effort has been taking place over the past few years. Land has been excavated to find old artefacts. It is rumored that there is a underground tunnel, connecting from the old well here in Anping to the central Tainan. This is the tunnel which acted as the escape route for Sun Yat Sen (I think?), and they are still trying to validate if this is true.
  

On a side note, darn…I still cannot access internet in my dorm, even though I have asked my junior to register for me. So I have to write this first and then post it online later. As I wrote this blog in my dorm, I heard firecrackers cracking away in the streets outside. Hah…not even New Year yet.

Traffic in Tainan

Some additional sidenote...I just realise/discover (to my horror) that Canon Ixus doesn't seem to give me as good picture qualities as Canon Powershot! Shit!

Back to my Tainan trip. The second and third day in Taiwan, being on the weekends, was a relaxing one. Dr Wu and SX kindly kept me company over the weekends and tried to bring me around the National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) campus. The entire campus is extremely big, and hostels are like satelite towns in the Tainan central. There are many shops and foodstalls nearby, so it is extremely easy to get around IF you have a scooter or car here. Not so if you only rely your legs (like me). Having a pair of legs here in Tainan is equivalent to being physically handicapped. There are practically no public transport and everyone relies on scooters and cars. Dismay.

My first scooter experience was both terrifying and exciting. I have never ride on a motorcycle before. So when SX came to fetch me that day on her scooter, she has to ride extremely slowly (she says it is very slow already...even though I think it is still very fast) as I tremble behind her. With the wind blowing against my face so strongly, I had to clutch to the grips very tightly for fear I will fall off the scooter. At times, the passing cars and scooters are so near I thought they will collide. Tainan streets are buzzing with cars and scooters. Though traffic is not as orderly as the streets in Singapore, no one flouts the traffic rules (yet).

Besides the scooter experience (now that I think of it, it is rather fun actually), crossing the roads can be a bit tricky as well. Many roads and junctions do not have the traffic lights. You will have to rely on the cars' traffic light to turn red and then cross the road. They also do not really have the junction traffic lights to indicate to drivers if they can turn into the lane or not. So you really have to be careful when crossing the roads so that you do not get knocked down by reckless/ impatient drivers. I still get jitters from crossing the roads here.

Another interesting thing however, is that when you do see the passerby's traffic lights, the green man is no longer standing still. It is walking and running, indicating that you should walk faster! It's rather hard to walk faster because the green man is so distracting! You just can't help but look at it while crossing the roads. I heard there are some which show the green man falling down (in Taipei). I definitely would like to see that! Haha!

First day in Tainan

This post is dedicated to SW because she is stuck somewhere in her Ulu Pandan office. Hahah!

Here I am in Tainan. The Jetstar experience was not bad. Fast and safe. But the Taoyuan International Airport was quite a letdown. It didn't appear as fabulous as Hongkong International airport, not even mention our very own Changi Airport. Now I really really understand why our Changi Airport always make it to the top of the list. There's really no airport (or rather none that I have seen so far) that is as nice..as cozy...as busy...as orderly...as homely as Changi Airport. Hats off.

By the time I reach Taoyuan and cleared the custom, it is already 6pm. I was rather taken aback by how dark it is in Taiwan at 6pm. I have to remind myself that I am no longer in Singapore, which is in the equitorial belt. Get that idea off my head, PY!

The ride from Taoyuan to Tainan is terribly long. I can't remember how many times I have dozed off in the car....so I shall give that a skip, and not describe it here. By the time I reached the hostel, it is already 10pm (imagine...5h of car ride. Enough to kill. Should have taken a train)

And surprise surprise....when I stepped into the room together with Dr Wu's wife (Shi-Xian...thereby abbreviated as SX in the future), I thought I can see where my private room is. But no no...instead, I saw an empty bed (no mattress one wor....luckily I am trained to sleep on the floor since young). The room is very much like a HDB 1 room flat. There is a Taiwanese Masters student who is supposed to share the room with me. And because there is no private room, it means that I have no privacy at all. The thought of it sianz me off. Then I explored the toilet and eeeeee....I guess my room mate is either [1] very lazy to clean up because she is living alone in the room for quite some time, or [2] is untidy. The toilet bowl........yucks is the only word I can say. To the extent that I took 2h on the next day (Saturday) to scrub the toilet bowl and the bathing unit. So you guess what's the state. Now I am glad to say the toilet is nice and bearable liao.

Living together with a stranger, with totally different lifestyle requires lots of patience. For example, I sleep early and she doesn't. I am still trying to get used to it. So I try to reach home late at around 10pm, sleep at 1130pm, and get out of the house at 7am the next day. So that I don't have to interact with my room mate and minimize any possible conflict. I guess I am really anti-social. Forgive me.

Do check out the photos of my hostel in Flickr!

Taiwan - the start of a new chapter

I am all ready to go!

Off to Taiwan to start a new chapter for my PhD life!
Hopefully all goes well and I can meet the goals I have set for myself.
2006 is rather special for me....clearing the qualifying exams, going Vienna for conference and going Taiwan alone to do my research.

It's kind of hard to say goodbye to so many of my lab mates all of a sudden (by the time I come back, they will no longer be around in the lab). Especially those whom I talk to and meet up with almost everyday (some like Mr Sh__ however are really "slack" and don't appear everyday). They, however seem to be counting down and ready to celebrate my departure. It just doesn't reciprocate to be kind and good to them.

Goodbye to my fishes too! Hope I can still see all (if not some) of them by the time I get back to Singapore.

Mass destruction

Day 1: Destruction of the bridge
















Day 3: Almost half is gone





Day 6: Almost done...if this is not efficient, I don't know what else is....

It's all about responsibility

I was rather pissed off yesterday. In fact, it is more appropriate to say that I was VERY pissed off yesterday.

I was supposed to meet up for a group discussion at 9am. I reached at 9.03am, thinking that I was slightly late, but was relieved to see that no one is here yet. I waited and waited...20 min passed and no one turned up. I went to the classroom to have my lecture instead. At the end of the lecture, I tried to find my group mates who are supposed to turn up for the lecture as well. They were not even physically here.

I thought that I didn't make it clear in my previous email sent out on Tues, so I hurried back to check my email after the lecture. And there I saw that statement, " And we will meet up at 9am, same venue on this Thurs." The deadline for the proposal is just 10 days away, and those parts that were supposed to be researched and written by my group mates were either ambiguous, poorly planned or missing. I sent an email telling the lady (who is an A*STAR scholar) that we should be focused and plead her to send me her part soon. But up till today, there were no replies from her. Nothing at all.

It's all about responsibility. If she feels that she cannot work along with me, it's fine [Maybe she think I changed too much of your one page writeup the other time. I have to do so for coherency!]. But at least be responsible and finish your part. We are no longer teenagers! Finding excuses like, " I really don't know how to do this part. Can I don't do?" and " Sorry, I am busy so I didn't do this and that" are NO LONGER acceptable. Please. I hear them too often from my tuition kids.

Everyone has 24h.
It is not as if I have 48h per day.
It is not as if I don't need to do my research.
It is not as if I don't need to sleep, watch tv or idle.

I always believe that if you want to do something, no matter what happens, you will try to do it. Whatever is your responsibility, you should not shirk away from it.
Whatever you promised, make sure you carry out.
I have zero tolerance for people who don't do all these.

How valid is our PSI reading?

There are some days that I can FEEL, SEE and SMELL the unbearable particulates in the air. And yet at night when I watch the news, NEA always assure the public that the PSI reading is in the moderate range of <100. href="http://app.nea.gov.sg/psi/">http://app.nea.gov.sg/psi/] and realise that they have their PSI reading based on the detection of PM10 (particulate matter <10um). href="http://www.epa.gov/air/particles/">http://www.epa.gov/air/particles/], EPA groups particle pollution into two categories:

• "Inhalable coarse particles," such as those found near roadways and dusty industries, are larger than 2.5 micrometers and smaller than 10 micrometers in diameter [PM10].
• "Fine particles," such as those found in smoke and haze, are 2.5 micrometers in diameter and smaller. These particles can be directly emitted from sources such as forest fires, or they can form when gases emitted from power plants, industries and automobiles react in the air [PM2.5]

So, the big question is: Why is Singapore NEA still monitoring PM10 as the criteria for our PSI readings? It's PM2.5 that is more relevant for our case! PM2.5 are the most dangerous particulates. Because of their small size, they reside in our respiratory system for a very long time. No doubt PM2.5 is difficult to monitor and USEPA itself doesn't even list that as a monitoring requirement, but PSI is basically crap if they don't reflect the core issue! And why must our standards be defined based on USEPA? Set our own!

Lastly, NEA briefly mentioned that readings were monitored " through a number of telemetric networks of monitoring stations positioned strategically throughout Singapore". No specific locations were given. Which makes me wonder...so how strategic is strategic?

Health

I know I have been procrastinating. The letter from my insurance company asking me to go for a medical checkup still sits idly on my desk. Somehow I have been finding tons of reasons to procrastinate.

But bad news from the people around me just come one after another...

My friend's dad had died from a sudden heart attack....
My fourth aunt is suffering from depression....
My fifth aunt just went for a treatment for second stage colon cancer....

Things like that....It makes you realize how vulnerable we humans are.

So what if you have earned your first million if you do not have the good health to enjoy it?

I wish my parents the best of health.

Warning

OK, I think I am suffering from some form of PMS. Or the sudden influx of new students in the lab made me feel out of place again. Symptoms of PMS:

• I am easily annoyed by small trivial things: jokes (especially those directed at my character), admin work, stupid antics, raised voices, high pitch voice, laughters etc.
• Not feeling respected
• I feel misunderstood
• Don't feel like talking
• Don't feel like interacting

Pay some attention to how you treat the insecure me at this moment. Try not to step on my toes lest I blacklist you.

I'm back!

Hiya! I'm back from my HK-Austria trip! Yep, feeling really refreshed now. Check out the latest photos at myflickr section...I'm to lazy to blog down what I had done over those 2 weeks. So hopefully the photos will do the trick. =)

Note: There are some more photos that I didn't manage to upload as I had hit the limit allowed by myflickr. Maybe next time...

Be prepared for the worst but remain optimistic throughout

That wasn't meant to be an ironical statement, even though it may sound very contradictory.

I guess I was very much influenced by my father. He was the one who always taught me to expect for the worst possible outcome.

When I was in P6, I listed out secondary schools like Broadrick, Swiss Cottage (?) and Outram Secondary School as few of the choices. It wasn't really a case of being unsure of my capabilities (or was it?), but I must have been thinking that I shouldn't give myself too much stress in trying to aim for those top schools. I think miracles do happen. And I made it. (Though I come to regret my 4 yrs in RV...I made friends there during my Sec 1 and 2, but I don't like my sec 3 and 4 class. And I still don't like them.) Even after I got into RV, while my parents were rejoicing for me, I wasn't happy. I remained pessimistic and I dreaded life everyday. My secondary school friends chided me for being so pessimistic. You can't blame me for inheriting my father's pessimism....he saw a psychiatrist for that.

I don't know when I start to think positively. Was it the university days? One day, I woke up, stare into space, recall back my life and realise I am still the lucky one. Who am I to complain? My parents are healthy, I have my friends, I enjoy my research and I am unburdened.

True...every day of my life (and so is yours) is full of ups and downs. Maybe comprising mostly of downs, but look around you. Were you like the Tiong Bahru uncle who was hit by a stroke and now had to rely on his cane to move about? Were you like my neighbouring kid upstairs who's suffering from hyperactivity and autism, and is unable to control your emotions?

If you are not, why not start thinking positively? I am doing so now.

P/S: I was kidding about the part where I stared into space and suddenly became optimistic.

What's an emergency alarm for?

On 17 August 2006, Java was hit by tsunami again. In less than a year, this natural calamity has claimed another 300 innocent lifes. Amidst claims that the countries in the Pacific have teamed up to sound emergency alarms should there by a possible danger of tsunami when the crater shakes. Amidst news that various countries actually held emergency drills three months ago, to educate their civilians of how to escape when a tsunami strikes.

It's ironical how life can get. Just when we thought that such unnecessary casualties can be prevented, it strikes again. And this time, it happened again because the Indonesian authorities withheld the need to inform the civilians of the possible tsunami after the earthquake happened.

"We have indeed received the warning from the Japanese meteorological unit.....telling us of the quake. But what happens if we inform the public and there is no tsunami?" An Indonesian officer was quoted.

Stupidity.
Ignorance.

Crazy about reading

It's one of those periods that I have turned to reading to seek some pleasures in life.

I have consecutively finished three novels -- The kite runner, Harry Potter and the half-blood prince, and Tuesdays with Morrie, all in 2 mths. I would say they are all good read. Though Harry Potter seems so bland and so typical best-seller after I had read the kite runner. I don't know if my tear ducts are hyperactive these few days or what, but each and every moving sentences in the Kite runner and Tuesdays with Morrie are enough to send my tears welling up. I have to put down my book quickly and calm myself down before continuing my read (lest the other bus passengers think I am a weirdo).

It has been a long time since I am so deeply touched by what is written in the book (especially if you are a research student and most probably should be numb like me after reading all those scientific journals). I think the trip down to Borders on that particular evening was a fruitful one ( I spent 80 dollars on that single night!). Shopping therapy, apparently =)

Next on my reading list....Marley and Me.

Strike lottery!

Happy!! =D

Strike lottery for the latest collaborative works done with Shanghai JiaoTong!

90% accuracy for HOPE isn't that bad after all....and some more that 10% error was most likely due to my judgement.

So glad that all sounds hopeful for HOPE...starting to feel good about it.

Hopefully I am not rejoicing too early....hmmm

Nevertheless, give myself a pat on the back and "Good work!" =D