school started yesterday.my first seminar was held in a lecture theatre located in the building for forestry studies. i don’t even want to know why it’s held there. the place was nice and nature-like, but with no air-con or ventilation.

i arrived half an hour ahead of the scheduled time, and as the classmates came in, i was horrified. there was an bangladeshi student who came in early too, and he was waaaaay more horrified than i was. cos more than half of the class were PRC students. he had this look of pure bewilderment for a very long time. then as the rest of the class came in, there were a good mixture of colours.

there were pakistanis, bangladeshis, hong kongers, indonesians, chinese, angmohs, koreans, and i suspect i’m one of the few who solely represents a country.

i met my first singaporean classmate today. this guy who happened to sit next to me asked me if i was singaporean during the break. i swear i didn’t even utter a single word before that. do i look that singaporean or what? but he’s the very quiet kind, damn. cannot yak and rant like i usually do.

the tutorial enrolment system here is worse than STARS, and they have a site (think blackboard) which is so user-unfriendly. at times like this i really love ntu for their system.

the textbooks here cost a bomb too. like three times the cost of that in singapore. think i’ll import them from singa-land. it should still be cheaper than buying them here.

AND MY GLASSES TOO. IT COST A MEGA BOMB. and i settled for standard lenses instead of the hi-index ones i’ve had for a few years cos i’d save AU$60. the hell with it, i’ll just look like a geek with thick lenses. i really, really feel the bloody pain for this.