Alrighty, here's a bit about what's been going on lately. Past two weeks have been really shitty; hadn't been so frustrated in quite awhile >_>
Planning the Eurotrip was much harder than I thought. Turns out that train passes are far from the cheapest way to travel around. Budget airlines, on the other hand, can save you a ton if you get the right ones (thanks,
Miguel).
Small problem with those airlines though. Prices fluctuate quite madly, they fly to weird, ulu airports and they've got irregular weekly/daily/wtvly schedules. Furthermore, most of them only fly to a few countries in Europe. Meaning I'd have to check almost EVERY budget airline company's schedule for EVERY FVCKING DAY I was there to get the cheapest flights.
Felt like I was working my schedule around my flights; wouldn't be the case if I had more MONEY, would it. Btw, did I mention my funding was reduced lots? (Not FaMo scholarship, if that's what you're thinking)
Really appreciate it, thanks.
Yeah so I basically spent about twenty hours looking through a dozen budget airlines' schedules and fares. Learned a lot about budget travel though, here's some tips, in case anyone's gonna be traveling Europe anytime soon:
- Best way to save is a combination of train and flying.
- Most countries' internal train systems are cheap. As in, anything from city-to-city in one country, or if you're arriving from OR departing to the said country.
www.bahn.de for germany,
www.sbb.ch/en for Switzerland. About 30 Euros per ride, pretty cheap compared to fucking Eurostar!
- Eurostar is expensive. Like wtf.
-
www.budgetflightfinder.com and
www.whichbudget.com are great places to figure out which budget airlines to look up. Note: to
figure out which ones to use, not to actually check schedules and fares. Zomg.
-
http://www.studentuniverse.com/ is great if you're a student and if you book early. I didn't book early. FML.
-
www.hostelseurope.com and
www.hostelworld.com/europe for cheap lodging. Hostels are actually really fun to stay in! Eg: Suk11 in Bangkok :D
- Will add more when I remember them lols.
For now, the plan is touchdown in London, fly to Basel, Switzerland for a week, head to Munich, Germany for a few days, after which monkey disappears back to his lovely boys' school. From there I'll probably tour Germany a bit, head to Brussels, Belgium, possibly Amsterdam, and finally London for a coupla days. SO BE READY TO RECEIVE A FREELOADER on the 21st or so >:D
Oh yeah, remember that I still have NO FKG LAPTOP, so I've been using the comp labs to plan all this shit... till about 5 in the morning every night for almost a week. Yay.
The following week (the one that just ended), I had an 8-page research paper due, plus three prelims. First prelim psychology, Monday. Hadn't studied a shit before that, plus had a FKG AWESOME Maroon 5 concert the Sunday right before.
So I started studying on Sunday at about 10pm, didn't sleep a wink. Yay. Theory: "Won't oversleep.. if I don't sleep at all." Got like 95 or some shit. Some of the others got 102 or smth, 2 marks carry forward to next sem ==" Arrggh. What to do, one night job. Fk.
Wednesday had an astronomy prelim, third one of the year. My only class with three prelims. Great grading system though, they only take like 2/3 of the prelims when calculating your final grade. Also, 8/11 of the homeworks, x/y of the quizzes, etc. So I didn't study a shit and just took the prelim, since did well for the previous two. Winner is me >:D
Then the eight page research paper. Oh god the eight page research paper.. Procrastinated till the night before to do it, obviously. Summore needed like sources/references etc. Hence the name research paper. Arrgghhh. Plus an annotated bibliography. AARRGGGGHHH. Started at 4am, finshed at 11.30am. Class at 11.40am.
Next day Econs prelim, been missing some of these classes too. Class is at 1.25 and I can oversleep. Yay me ==" What to do, last-min study again lah. Aiya f*ck it lah somehow will shit out an A one. Ahahaha. Had 4 hours of sleep this night.
Now if you total up my sleep for the week, you get... NOT MUCH. KNNCCB fkg tired after the week. Hell, it's 6am now, wtf am I doing. Weekends are for sleeping anyway.
Ah well, no more prelims, finals in 2-4 weeks, can slack. Anything > 7 days is a super long time in terms of exams.
Btw, I freaking hope that if my parents ever discover this blog, this is not the first post they read.
Yeah the travel stress, exams, essay, LAPTOP (@#%!@#&), orthotics etc.. It's been a bad week =_= FRUSTRATION.
...
Okay now back to stuff that's a month overdue.
Oct 7th - Oct 9th
Wednesday
Had a morning appointment at Gannett Physical Therapy today for my foot. Was there at 8.30 or so omg -_- probably the earliest I'd ever woken up here. Anyway, therapist confirmed that it was indeed
plantar fasciitis (might not want to click that... ), and taught me a few stretches that I'm supposed to do every day.. takes about 15 mins (both legs), and I usually stretch in the shower, cause too lazy to actually stand somewhere and stretch. At least feels like I'm getting something done while stretching (i.e. getting clean).
Therapist (along with some other friends) recommended orthotics, custom insoles for the shoes that match your foot curvature or some shit. Supposed to REALLY help! She cast my leg with some plaster of paris and sent the mold wherever it is that makes orthotics.
Present time, shipping company on strike, orthotics two weeks overdue and counting. Fkg unions.
Anyways had some time before psych class so I had breakfast at Trillium! I gotta say, this place has some of the best food on campus, but they don't take meal plans! Had to pay (with BRBs).
Eggs, bacon, chicken noodle soup (yuck), pancakes and honey, home fries, linear algebra, and cider.
Present time again, I've been skipping HELL lots of psych classes; they're my earliest, at 10.10am, Mon Wed Fri. Yup I'm a pig (: The class is really interesting, but feels more like entertainment than education ahaha. Prelims are annoying though, since most of the material doesn't come from lectures but from the book instead. Good for me since I pon class so much.
Thursday, 8th
Look what came in the mail! :D
Randall Munroe of xkcd finally decided to compile his comics into a book! This book raised enough money to build a school in Laos! How awesome is that!
"We’re not going to torment the kids’ ability to learn phonetics by calling it The XKCD School, but we will be writing a dedication which will go on a plaque."
Tons of his older comics, with some new stuff - quirky comments, trivia, equations (?) and dedications - in redscribbled in the margins. Read it cover to cover, didn't bother with most of the codes -_- sorrylah. Some great laughs in there :D
Buy buy buy!
Friday, 9th
Went to Clara Dickson Hall, a gigantic, very symmetrical hall right opposite CKB (my hall) to play some Wii with Bing Zhao (Singapore chef) and some others. Played Smash Brothers. Super fun game for Nintendo systems, first released for the Nintendo 64 in 1999. .. Suddenly I feel old.
Btw, have you realized that the first Pokemon games were released in 1998? That was a freaking ELEVEN years ago! Holy crap, I can still remember the first time I played it! Shit, we're getting old!
Anyway yeah here's a picture of the weird stairwell in the middle of Dickson. One of the oldest buildings, but gigantic. And quite easy to get lost inside.
O___o lol there are lifts and stuff too but meh, nice stairs.
Bing proceeded to wipe the floor with my Kirby/whoever. Bugger's been playing since the first game. Ahaha.
Oh yeah, a few weeks ago (present time -_- this getting confusing?) I signed my apartment lease for next year. I'm staying on 222 Eddy Street, somewhere in Collegetown! A bit of a walk to campus, but CHEAP. 480usd/month, including gas, heating and water. Normal places are 600+ or 700, but they're usually nearer or something. My place looks kinda crappy from outside, and the living room is pathetic, but the kitchen's pretty good and the bedrooms are huge! Rooming with two Singaporeans, Bing Zhao and Yuan Jian.
Okay I'm done for the night. Before I leave.. here's a life story that may sound familiar.
"My mum practically kicked my ass out of the house before I even hit 13, and I never even met my dad. My only friend till I was 10 was the faggot prick next door who was always beating the shit out of me and telling me I wasn’t worth shit. Its not even like I had a choice, the town fucking had something like 9 people living in it, I shit you not. My entire adolescence was just moving around from place trying to get along with people who didn’t even want me.
You think that’s the worst? My only friend was an Asian guy in his thirties or something, who only kept me around because he thought I could help him get laid. The only perk was that I also got to hang around with this cute ginger chick, she was flat as a pancake sure, but damn she was a total nymph. She must have been a sadist or something cause she always took pleasure in hitting me and telling me how she loved to get wet.
But dear god the bane of my existence was this adult couple that I could NOT seem to avoid. You know these types of couples that are absolutely sickening, like they wear matching outfits and finish each other’s sentences? Yeah they were fucking creepers, and they had a cat, which was at least twice as annoying as they were, I swear this thing would never shut the fuck up.
Like I said, I ended up moving from town to town getting into fights with other kids my age, even adults from time to time. "
Ouch. ...
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...
...
...
...
...
(taking a lesson from somebody here)
...
x>
...
...
...
"The only thing that kept me going was my dream to become a Pokemon master. "
I laughed.
And,
Real photo.
Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta.
Temperature: around zero all day and all night.
Expenditure:
xkcd book, 23
About RM78 ==" Charity! Shuttup!
at
I packed all my
and finally left for
with
to join
and
on a week-long ski trip in
(the top one!)
, meaning I'd been looking forward to this trip since
(+- a few days)
Bringing 'breathtaking' to a whole new level.
where we had some awesome
French onion soup, chocolate fontant and creme brulee. Très bien!
(no, not me, the other awesome) knitted me this neck heater thing:
Thaaaanks may!
when
and
decided to go all
on my sorry ass, turning my
into
which ensued in a lot of
and other expletives. 300 Euros, six weeks of healing and another month of physio right there. Whoop-dee-fuckmylife.
at
I packed all my
and finally left for
with
to join
and
on a week-long ski trip in
(the top one!)
, meaning I'd been looking forward to this trip since
(+- a few days)
Bringing 'breathtaking' to a whole new level.
where we had some awesome
French onion soup, chocolate fontant and creme brulee. Très bien!
(no, not me, the other awesome) knitted me this neck heater thing:
Thaaaanks may!
when
and
decided to go all
on my sorry ass, turning my
into
which ensued in a lot of
and other expletives. 300 Euros, six weeks of healing and another month of physio right there. Whoop-dee-fuckmylife.
Except for the one game of baLonergrams
