off to paris till sunday!

time for the good news

Good news #1 - I'm a survivor

Bye block 3, hello block 4

Dean's lister (with a tums) 2008/2009 winkz
Destroyed.

Good news #2 - Aspiring chefs; from zero to hero.

Gone are the days where Poh and I were relegated and tasked to contributing dishes like sunny side-ups and potatoes to the table. Enough is enough. We have finally stepped up our game and unleashed our full potential, contributing dishes with character nowadays.

You'll be begging us to cook for you when we return. hahaha No, seriously.

Feb 08: I remember i used to squeal in excitement like a noob-ish juvenile lunatic everytime i cracked open an egg like it was some huge feat

March 08: At the bottom right you start to see some improvements, chao-tah+broken side show omelette with Fillings somemore!

April 08: me sheepishly presenting my self-NIAKED secret recipe marinated chicks wing and drumsticks. When i get back to SG, no prizes for guessing what I'll bring to a potluck haha
April 08: Just look at Poh exuding his distinguished chef aura lovingly
admiring his signature dish

Good news #3 - ...and a new friend found

I'm really lucky to have met so many amazing people and made so many good friends here. Be it people from other nationalities or fellow Singaporeans, thank you for being part of my life. If you don't see your picture below don't get all sensitive you hear me? haha its probably cos I haven't got a photo with you yet. This is just the first part out of many many more parts to come

Getting to know each other better during communal dinners
A shoutout to my crazy multi nationality groupmates (from left to right):

Fabian (German), Wiro (Dutch), Ron (Canadian)
Nothing beats having friday afternoon chats over coffee with you both
Dinner at the Greek God Panos's place always makes me happy.
Yohannas is a Finnish superstar! :D
Won, Philippe and crew - Thank you for the warm hospitality in Cologne! :)
Lynette, Tej, Rong...Love the company, we should hang out more
Can you believe I randomly met a- oh my goodness hold your breath... A Malaysian in Maastricht at church and we hit it off instantly talking in our stupid "lahs", "mehs" and "shioks" haha! I'll call you soon Carmen! :)
Crazy company at the CRAZE party

Seems like there's more good news than bad huh? hahaha

I like to call it making the best out of every situation :)

Thank You.

Hey all, poh here.
How's everyone surviving back home especially it being the exams week?

I had my exams as well, 2 papers; one on gender and the other one int. finance, the finance was a crazy paper so i hope i did enough. Let what cheryl said, we just started another block! i am taking international marketing and derivatives this block which looks to be another exciting 7 weeks.

Well, this blog is about thanks.

Over the last couple of weeks, i have been fortunate to encounter a number of people and i want to thank them for what they done for me!

1st: The Korean Won.

Yes, the korean won, is a friend of mine i met in a school party he was so kind to offer us a place to sleep in Cologne. His name is Won and according to lee, he looks like the korean version of Paul Tan (other unconfirmed rumours had it that the NUS girls were nuts about him), well i dont know, photos below. He's an american, but his parents are korean and he grew up in germany all his life. Crazy mix yeah but he's really cool and down to earth. As you guys know that we were headed to Prague but our flight was from Cologne so we had to head into Germany, and he offered to host us on the night before the flight. We all drove to his place from Maastricht with another friend of his who happened to be my classmate; the crazy Jan-Philipp, but this dude is smart like most germans. Once at his home, his mom had prepared probably the most authentic korean dish i had in my life (photos), i was eating like a pig. After that we met up with the other korean hommies down in town and had a nice german beer (i survived again!), i must admit now my alcohol tolerance has improved to 2 beers joking! i still ger red after half but i think i could manage like 3-4 bottles now before a few other cocktails ha! So here's a shoutout to Won, thanks man for the place, the food, the crazy party night at the club, http://www.deezer.com/, and we definitely will be up for poker soon.

The white guy is obviously Jan-Philipp, and we all that really awesome authentic dinner when we got there. We also had the chance to meet other Koreans like Haenam with Won in the last photo.

My Parents.

Thanks both Mom and Dad for supporting me during this exchange period and thanks for the wonderful package that you sent up with the food sauces and also for the present for my birthday! Hope everyone back home is fine and enjoying time. I will definitely let you guys know when its best to come up here! love you guys.

Lee

This girl never fails to amaze me when it comes to organizing my birthday! Last year, she arranged a surprise gathering of friends and these friends were from the different pockets of my life, neighbours, sec school friends, army mates, ruggers, all the works! and this year! she surprised me with a trip to Paris! Probably can't ask for more now, dont worry i wouldnt sleep on the Eiffel tower or the mona lisa? haha but just want to say thank you babe. Its really sweet and i will definitely behave on the trip. haha joking but people stay tune to pictures of le bleuss.

Oh anyway! i have some photos of a short birthday celebration of Cirong, feel free to see it!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lionelpoh/CirongSBirthday

good news or bad news first?

A social behaviour and personality experiment by Marshall, Linda L.; Kidd, Robert F. produced results indicating that most of their subjects overwhelmingly preferred to receive bad news first. (okayy fine you got me there, i just googled "good news or bad news first" acting all OCD about citations hurhur)

I assume the majority of you are like the research subjects too.
So, bad news first.

You know that electric shock bursting with adrenaline feeling you get once you put down your pen, hurriedly flip through your exam paper one last time to double-check all questions were answered then push your chair back, throw on your coat and confidently do the dirt off your shoulder move, walk up to the examiner and hand up your paper with an affirmative smile? Then, with your head held high, discreetly look back at your fellow colleagues enviously looking at you leave the exam hall with your 3kg eye bags and ink stained hands...

Usually back at SMU, this would mean elaborate planning and sheer enjoyment for a month at least, without a care in the world.

Sorry at UM- its called WOOHOOOO happiness we've made it! Yeah we did - to the end of block 3 where you're done with TWO subjects over the course of 7 grueling weeks! But guess what, in the blink of an eye, or the half-blink of an eye rather, one week will fly by sooo fast without you realizing it. Even the rainy windy weather in Maastricht contributes to a layer of melancholy in the air as BLOODY BLOCK 4 BECKONS!!

Today was our first day of school Again.

It's going to be another 7 urgent weeks with another 2 demanding subjects. However, I think now we're better equipped with more powerful ammo as we know better what to expect from the UM trajectory. The only concern is that the pellets may be on low supply and may be a little rusty haha. But with hard work, unfaltering determination and not forgetting NEW! spanking motivational quotes (currently in the search for the perfect quotes to replace the old quotes) for Block 4, nothing is impossible! :)

Abandoned walkways waiting to be filled

Neglected classrooms waiting to come alive

Energy to continue and persevere is all we need for block 4.

Quoting my ever so down-to-earth Dad while I was bitching to him about the system here. He simply looked at me as if I just said the most ridiculous thing in the world, gave a chuckle followed by the firmest smile I had ever seen in the world and said "Whatever doesn't kill you only makes you stronger, *at this point he whips out his fluid yet controlled businessman hand actions101 and his eyes get more focused* learn from it, see it as a challenge and it will only prepare you better for the future." Thats my Dad for you, always someone I know I can head to for the wisest advice. Big LEE Hug!

Now, time for the good news :)

Rock-A-Bye-Baby

Taking a break from studying, I decided to randomly look through old photos in Poh's external hard drive and when I saw the photo below (courtesy of Poh's Dad - Uncle Eng Seng), I ABSOLUTELY had to blog about it!!

Too cute: Giant Poh still sleeps in that pose occasionally
(check out his hot pink shorts and fashionista anklet)
Tell me, whats there not to love about this picture!?

Main Entry:	apt
Part of Speech:	adjective 1
Definition:	suitable
Synonyms:	applicable, apposite, appropriate, apropos, befitting, correct, felicitous, fit, fitting, germane, happy, just, pertinent, proper, relevant, seemly, suitable, timely
Antonyms:	inappropriate, incorrect, irrelevant, unsuitable
Notes:	apt is for general probabilities, likely is for specific probabilities; liable and prone indicate a probability arising as a regrettable consequence
Source:	Roget's New Millennium™ Thesaurus, First Edition (v 1.3.1) Copyright © 2008 by Lexico Publishing Group, LLC. All rights reserved.

Close friends and family of Poh's will know Precisely what I'm talking about. *nudges Jason

Soon turning 24 years old, being slumberous is still undoubtedly one of, if not Poh's favourite past time.

Just yesterday, The Hibernator sheepishly came up to me with a you-were-right-all-along gorilla grin and said, "Shagg, I think I have a sleeping disorder". This happened right after his double dose coffee consumption fiasco in an attempt to keep himself awake.

That comment just made me burst out in uncontrollable guffaws. On this trip, other similar comments which tickled me were "I think I should drink a bottle of beer every night so I can go to sleep faster" and when I asked him energetically what he wants to do for his birthday he answered with a simple minded "Lets just stay in Maastricht and sleep k?"

Edited on 6th April 08 (look out for more edits on new revelations by The Hibernator):
Poh was lying down on his bed and then while stretching he said "This is really what exchange should be like! I don't care if I'm in Poland or Mozambique, just give me a bed and I'll be happy!"

Other memorable things he said today was "I hope someone gives me a sleeping bag for my birthday". Major explicit hinting there haha

When out of sight, other girls worry about their boyfriends being flirtatious jerks with other girls, or cheating behind their backs. For me, I got it easy with my snoozing boyfriend :D

Goodnight Poh, and good luck for your International Finance paper tomorrow! Love.

Lights out!

"SLEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEPPPPPPPPPPPPP"

"SHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAGGGG...."

HUGE spasms will follow after in no time (beat this: just 10 seconds of pillow grazing is enough for The Hibernator to be in realllyyyy Deep sleep) with random kicks and throwing punches in the air...

P.s: Okay, now I'm officially worried about what Poh will use in his counter attack against me! *nervous laughterrr* hurhur

why the need for GSR's when you have....

A BIG hello to all our Stressed friends back home

If you don't know if we're referring to you..

Here are some unmistakable symptoms...

If you are on the verge/or have already started pulling your hair out, profusely banging your head on the table, spouting vulgarities in the library, putting Oscar the grouch out of a job, furiously flipping pages to the back of the book to see how far more you have to go, where coffee is no longer a hey-lets-chill-out-chit-chat-over-coffee kind of affair but rather a potent tool to fiercely keep yourself awake, the immense guilt you procure the next day when you realize you had a whooping 7 hours of sleep, listlessly and soul-lessly dragging your feet around the library, pimps /eyebags galore, snacking like you've never snacked before and in the process leaving your one nice Hansel and Gretel like trail all over the library (shame on you!), the inability to keep still and nervously fidgeting on the bus ride home thinking about the 70% you've yet to conquer...

Well, I heard from some SMU colleagues that its exam week back in Singapore now huh? Hang in there my dear friends. We'll fight the battle together despite being mountains and seas apart, as our Maastricht days are looking oh so similarly bleak now.

At UM, teachers are infamously known for unhesitatingly deviously failing students without the bat of an eyelid and some courses even have notorious reputations of having pass rates as low as a disgustingly 56%! Like what Justin says "Its either you or the guy next to you" and like angs would shriek "Hellpppppppppp damn grosssss". Poh and I being fighters have decided to not concede defeat and unleash our Singaporean pugnacious study styles and smack this exam left right and centre. We're going to study so seriously for the exams, look it in the eye come Sat and Mon and like a Pacman game, try to avoid all the evil Gui alien'ish immigrant characters and just focus on eating up the maximum number of yellow little dots which we consider marks to be earnt.

And in our game plan, we definitely want the best for the other Singaporeans here as well. Thus, in our 'All for one, one for all' unity cheer, Poh and I have revamped our room a little. Singapore's more of a collectivistic society afterall, aren't we?

Our efforts were all in the good spirit of forming a communal library where Singaporeans or anyone interested for that matter, can cluster in our comfort home this whole week and in their preparation for their journey to Awesomeness.

PohLee Library Official Opening Ceremony (30th March 2007): Joining of tables in the middle of our room to form a conducive pseudo library/GSR atomosphere which facilitates self & peer learning to the optimum level, now*say that in an educator like voice*

The crowd usually flows in around 2.30pm after having lunch. PohLee library is a popular choice only because We Care. Every morning, we conscientiously sweep/mop the quarters, make the pathways free from debris (scrambling to dump an accumulation of clothes into the cupboards), convenient toilet amneties, gossip sessions which puts you on the edge of your seat, delicious and varied snack flow, clean filtered water supply (which Poh and I make it a point to boil water and fill it up in countless waterbottles before opening hours *proudful glee*). The studious gang will then stay for a little hearty pot-luck dinner with food contributed by all students of the library. At this time, books, notes, block books, laptops, pens, eraser shavings, wasabi peas (who did it, own up now), pencil lead (who did it, own up now), will be strewn onto the floor to make way for the glorious food. The gift of the gab will be working for yet another hour, and then its back to work into the wee hours of the morning or ahem until the librarians (Poh and Lee) get sleepy, before students head back to their respective nests to hibernate.

Rising up to the occasion we are.
Till the next visit to the PohLee library!

daylight savings

Remember a few entries before, we introduced to you our 48 year old Dutch friend - Cyril?

Well, on Thursday (27th March), I received an email from him. See, the thing with Cyril is that he loves hosting Asian exchange students and always has the coolest of trips/events thoughtfully lined up for us. So when I got his email, there I was secretly excited and happy thinking that I was exclusive and special!

I enthusiastically opened the mail and hmmm lemme see he ONLY forwarded the message to 15 other Asians!

On a sidenote: From this mail (like all others), you can sense nothing but genuine estasy and unfaltering zealousness when it comes to educating his Asian friends about Dutch affairs. Mum, if you're reading this, for the 10th time; I reassure you he's not some psycho out to rape girls and his interest in us is unadulterated and we Singaporeans (okay well not everyone's on the same boat yet), have certified him safe-to-hang-with. Our dear plucky Chian even went to his house alone TWICE to cook dinner with his mum Gerry!

The mail read like this...

"Hello friends,

After a wet,white and cold easterweekend the weather will be better;even we have sometimes rain,the temp will climp up.From sunday the day temp will be between 14 and 18 degrees(they said..).

Other good news: this sunday we gone switch from winter in summertime,hurray!!For those of you who was here last semester,maybe you can remember we switch on the last sunday from october from summer in wintertime.This happen all over Europe,this switching I mean.What will happen?

Next sunday 30th of march at 2am,you have to change your time on your watch,alarms etc. in 3am!!

Yes, he even included the picture! damn cutish or what!

As you can see in this picture.I suggest you do before you go to bed or at 2am.Otherwise you will wake up one hour too late,haha!!This time switching started in Holland around 1975,just for economical

reason;one hour more daylight in the eve means,you can start your light in the house one hour later.

Also jobs/hobbies outside you can one more hour.

I can remember,in the early years of switching,not all countries did.Holland and Belgium switched but The Germans didn't.as you know we live not so far from The German border so we visit more times but in summerseason we always switched again our summertime in wintertime because in Germany it was one hour early then for us.Yes,yes the good old time but now all countries switch together even they are not member of the EU.Attention,in Brittian it's always one hour early than here and this difference will be!!The Brittains switch like as us;otherwise their was a time difference of 2 hours.The same for Turkey.Their it's always one hour later then here.

So enough about time.When you have questions about,contact me.I will do my best to answer you!

Greetings from a friend on time:-)),

Cyril

----

So to reassure you that it wasn't just a creation of mere stupid small talk with an ulterior motive just to get close to us Asians, daylight savings indeed transpired and all our smart phones automatically updated themselves.

In the past, dark fell at about 7pm but now even at 9pm its still bright and sunny! There have even been rumours that in time to come, the sun will set only at 11pm.

Guess you'll be the first to hear about that, if/when it happens! :)