A detailed account of my Last Week @ Bentley..

It's a long entry.. but I'm still pretty overwhelmed by all the events happening..
just let me rattle away~

It has been a messy week... straight after my 2nd last paper on Saturday... the whole issue of “last week in Bentley” became all the more inevitable...


3rd May, Saturday night..
the Asian Internationals brought all the HKU and NTU exchangers out for dinner at Emperor’s Restaurant at Chinatown...
It is one of those really restaurant, restaurant....
the mar chaim can hold wedding there kind...
but no choice lo.. so many of us leh..
needed to find a place to fit..

and we must owe it to William’s effort to gather so many Chinese students together...
the food was so so, but the great company made up for it..
it’s just always so hard to get big groups of ppl out..
after dinner half went sing K and halfwatch movie..
K too ex lah... so i watched Iron Man instead..
Good movie... haha.. (i shall not do spoilers..)

Later that evening we had out last alcoholic gathering at at Ivy's room..
something with that Boylston Attic..
apparently it always ends up as the gathering place..
the drinking.. laughing.. blowing and stupid games..
I'll miss those times...


4th May, Sunday night...
Me and YY brought Ivy out for lobster...
She missed out the last time we went to “No Name”
We decided to try McCormick and Shimicks at Quincy market..
Jimmy’s 2 friends came along too..
Wah.. the lobster is better and cheaper lo..
But different feel lo.. “No Name” got the pier, fishy, “Ah Huat Seafood” feel
McCormick is the classy, cosy, “Huat Des Chauteax Seafood” feel

When I got back from lobster.. it was sooo late...
Then began my mad rush to settle Monday’s ID211 paper..
It was a No. 3 – Take Home Final
Oh let me tell you the many different ways the Americans here can have an examination..

1) Half Price Offer - Let say a textbook has 12 chapters... 6 chapters tested for Mid Term.. Therefore ONLY 6 Chapters for the final exam... (Back in SG our final is all 12 chapters lo..)

2) Choice of weightage - just before your final you can decide what your final grade should be made up of.. the prof will let u choose, let’s say option A: mid term 40%, class participation 20% and final 40% or Option B: Mid term 20%, class participation 40% and final 40%, etc...

3) Take Home Final- they give u an essay topic.. write it at home and hand in the deadline..

4) Choice of exam dates and time– the professor will have a few exam dates for you to choose from... so if you need more time to study u can take the one on a later date.. if you prefer afternoon paper u can choose the afternoon timing one..

5) Common Exam – only very few selected final year modules have common exams.. and they have those on Saturday Afternoons... (the Americans actually use sat afternoons..)

6) Guess correctly.. NO exam – the professor will ask u to guess your overall grade.. if it is equal or less than his estimation, you will get that grade you guessed and would NOT need to take the final exam... if your guess is higher than his estimation then u need to go for the Final Exam... (exciting sia)


5th May, Monday
After (RUNNING up to campus) handing in the paper.. it was time to send YY off..
She, Ivy and Doris were leaving onTuesday morning to LA..
Spent the evening packing with her..

Today’s the official day I started packing too...
(notice it took me almost 4 days to EVER finish packing)

Me and YY had to sit and jump on her bag in order to close it..
Too many things.. too much rubbish.. but too little space..
Jimmy was good help..


6th May, Tuesday morning
the group of us woke up super early for breakfast at Seasons..
(I called for the gathering.. but due to oversleeping issues... hee.. I was last to arrive)
It was the last seasons episode for Ivy, YY and Doris..

They we walked out to the "Bentley College" sign board to take funny pictures..
It was facing the main road...
imagine the look of the drivers..
seeing us pose and do funny actions with the Bentley College logo.. haha

Then i spent the afternoon, printing travel documents and planning my "life after Bentley" trips... in the LIBRARY.... haha
It was nice to have a slow and careful look at the campus that I have been in for the last 5 mths..
To think that at some point , i thought about whether i would survive an exchange for an entire semester...
I even deliberated about whether i should even go to Bentley..
In a blink of an eye... i’m here for 5 mths le..

That evening.. i had dinner with Thomas at YanJing a Beijing place at Harvard Square..
Probably my last time at that Restaurant too..
Love the staff there.. always soo friendly de.. haha
And the complimentary pork rib peanut soup.. feels like home.. haha

Then i ran over to Waverley Square to Willa and Elyse’s place...
(They were leaving on Wednesday Morning to LA too...)
Their roommates cooked a spread of food to bid them farewell..
They can really cook lo.. *feeling embarrassed*

7th May, Wednesday...
This when I started to feel sick le.. *sobs*
Woke up.. had a mad run all around school..
settling all the school stuff.. returning books..
Collecting money.. paying money..

Collected my pretty iPhone from the Mail Room..
*Hee*
It was out of stock.. so they had to send it to me.. Waited 10 days can..

Then I when out for a late lunch with Daniela, Birgit, Jessica and Jeff..
Jessica and Jeff are a pair of super nice American couple .. (Birgit’s Buddy)

Then in the Evening.. Andrew Innocent gathered all the exchange students from the Spring 2008 to Cheesecake Factory for a Farewell dinner..
I was the only Asian person who went for the dinner lo..

Just my personal evaluation: sometimes i think NTU made a good choice to send only 2 students to Bentley.. because there are only 2 of us.. we cannot just hang around with each other..
And we are kinda forced to make other friends..
All the “Guan Xi” skills.. fully applied in these instances..
That evening there was 4 French, 5 Austrians, 2 Moroccans, 2 Spaniards, 1 Australian and 2 Americans.. and 1 very proud SINGAPOREAN.. *haha*
I was sooo thankful for Daniela, Birgit and Delphine for sitting with me and speaking to me in a Non-Latin Lauguage ---- English

Language is a very funny thing...
Truth is.. We are all university students.. nobody has real problems speaking or writing in proper English... yet each of us like to fall back to a common (sometimes more personal) language..
There were soooooo many times throughout this exchange i had the.. “if only i could speak fluent German and Cantonese.. that would be great..” thought

I’m not an angel either... i know there was once... i made Daniela feel terrible when a group of us just started sprouting in Chinese in front of her..

haha.. but in any case the dinner was fun.. alot of photo taking..
but unfortunately i couldn't eat anything..
my sore throat was very bad that evening le..
had problems swallowing lo..
haix..
so I had 3 glasses of white wine..

which...
I found out much later was probably a bad choice too..
that evening i was down with fever..
Meredith even had to pass me her "zhong yao"..

It was a long night..
I didn't join the other exchange students to clubbing..
The mind really wanted to but the phyiscal body was giving way le..

when i got back..
i went over to Daniela's room to say farewell to Shantanu..
The indian guy from our gender class..
He got each of us dried food from India..
And we kind of had a mini gift exchange..


8th May, Thursday
Me, sophie, daniela and birgit got up at 8am to have our last breakfast together..
by that time i was almost a dead duck le..
Me, Eric, Daniela and Sophie were supposed to go to the Boston Outlet today...
but i gave it a miss..
cannot lah.. really sick le lo..

I didn't go.. Daniela decided to give it a miss..
Then Sophie missed the Shuttle bus..
Soooo.. Eric ended up alone..
He's probably going to hate me for that..
I hate being sick~

Today's kinda my last day at Bentley le..
Had to move my things out..
because dad & mum will only arrive next week, both Julie and Thomas offered to take me in..
And my vote went to Julie.. *claps*

That afternoon... Kelvin So helped me and Julie move out of campus..
Julie graduates this semester too..
so her moving out of campus was a humogous effort.. haha
totally reminds me of how i struggled to move out of hall..
the number of plastic bags.. books.. files.. tibits.. soft toys.. etc..
I think I had almost double of what she had when I move out of Hall 7..
*haha*

That evening.. 7 of us met for dinner at Union Oyster House..
Kelvin, Julie, Eric, Sophie, Meredith, Cherie and Me..
Finally got to try my oysters lo..
The 4 of them are leaving on Friday morning le..
sobs sniffs..
finally the last batch of HKU people also leaving le..


overwhelming hor..
I'm abt to start my wanderer life..
for the first time last night I felt like I don't have a home le..
the next 2 months is going to be exciting..
my graduation trip starts today...
wooosh..