Tagged by Andy, Spring Break is here

I've never done this 'tagged' thing before, but since Andy- since it's you who tagged, and you wrote me a postcard last year, and said we should keep in touch, eat dimsum... and didn't have the time too (you were so busy the whole of Dec!), I've decided to respond to it. (I promise I'll send you a postcard from New York City sometime!)

This is what you are supposed to cut and paste if you decide to participate in the tagging game. Each player of this game starts off by giving 6 weird things about themselves. People who get tagged need to write in a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rules clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. After you do that, leave them each a comment letting them know you tagged them and to read your blog

Six Weird Things About Chengwei:

1. I have some peculiar eating habits- I love dunking things into my coffee! Besides the normal biscuit with coffee, I love dipping corn flakes, all kinds of toasted bread (especially wholemeal loaves, english muffins, ciabattas), waffles, danishes, croissants...

2. This should have been number 1 - hear this, I DO NOT EAT CHOCOLATES, not because I hate them, but because I'm paranoid from having fallen sick so many times straight after consuming chocolates. I haven't eaten chocolates for more than a year!

3. I love eating in class and having 'TV dinners'. There are times when I would starve myself through lunch just to eat during 2 o'clock lectures... starve myself until 9pm to watch TV...

4. My vision of an ideal life is to have enough time to wake up and read the newspapers while drinking coffee everyday... it's really not that simple... no one has anytime for that!

5. I don't know when I acquired this habit, but I don't believe in sleeping too much anymore. I go to bed whenever I feel sleepy and whatever time that is, I'll set my alarm for 7 hours later. So if I sleep at 1am...I'm up by 8am! (and sometimes I wake up automatically before that) I actually think it's a good habit... makes me feel pleased with myself because I've a lot more time for the rest of the day.

6. I'm scared of fishes, I hate eating (most) fishes, but I LOVE sashimi....

I tag- Manda, Linda, Christine, Taitong, Darren, Kevin (I'm too lazy to tag on your blogs... so if you happen to see this)

It's spring break! I'm actually typing on Taitong's laptop in Orlando right now... My entire attitude has really transformed over here. If I were back in NUS, I wouldn't be able to enjoy a vacation if I know I've undone work... it'll be nagging at me at the back of my mind. But now, I've an assignment due on the first day after break, I'm getting back only one day before... but I don't seem to be affected by the fact that I haven't done it.

After half a semester, I realized the general attitude to school is a lot more laxed over here... no one seems to care much about skipping classes, which makes me wonder how they catch up. Attendance in most of my classes were only half full yesterday... probably because most people had gone off for Spring Break. For one of my modules, the professor asked if we had a problem with the schedule exam date and someone actually raised her hand and said, 'yea I can't come. It's my best friend's wedding'... and everyone had a whole host of reasons for not liking the date, which prompted me to say, 'yea I can't make it, my mum's coming.' So we had a class discussion, and the exam date was rescheduled.

If I were back in NUS having my mid-semester break right now, I'd be studying for midterms, catching up on tutorials and thinking about the upcoming projects. No one seems to care about starting any projects early over here... project meetings get cancelled, and are never rescheduled. I've one nice project group though, thankfully, =) If I were back in NUS, I'd be frantically trying to finish studying for my midterms (still remember I had 6 last semester), but over here, I panic about half a day before, decide to walk to school before my paper instead of mugging on the bus... and I won't say the exams are that easy, but the level of difficulty is something we can never even dream about in NUS.

It's been half a semester, but it's hard to decide which system I like better. I like it that it's more relaxed, but admittedly, it seems even more so because the fact that my grades don't count leaves me with little motivation (ah, shame on me!). Somehow, I feel that everything back home is more rigorous, and we get a better grasp of everything (most of the time). But things are always more exciting with Stern and New York City. Yesterday, we had the assistant marketing director of Loreal International come speak to us during New Product Development class (claairrsss- it's so easy to slip into pronouncing all my 'a's the American way) and it was so interesting that I thought, 'Stern students are lucky, so many opportunities to hear from people in the different industries.'

And then there are classes like movie marketing. The prof works with Miramax and he had just gotten back from the Oscars, so he spent 15 minutes telling us how boring it was... apparantly, during the uninteresting awards like best lightings/sets, everyone there gets bored and walk out for drinks by the bar, leaving the auditorium almost completely empty...and guess what, they actually have 'fillers' on standby to occupy the empty seats so that it looks like the audience is always there on TV! I find it so unbelievable... getting people to dress up fancily just to be 'fillers'!

Just go to Orlando today... really tired because we barely slept last night after being locked out. (ended up at Dunkin Donuts in the middle of the night- felt like I was having breakfast with my cup of decaf coffee and bagels.) Orlando must be the ultimate tourism-driven city in US... I honestly think that if you live here, you: (1) own a hotel/inn (2) work in a hotel/inn (3) own a theme park/tourism attraction (4) work in a theme park/tourism attraction(5) own a restaurant (5) own a gift sore (6) work in a gift store (with the amount I spend eating at a diner in NYC, I can have a whole main course and buffet here...)

We're going to Disneyworld tomorrow... about disappointed that we're just going for one day and skipping Universal Studios entirely since I already flew all the way here and don't know when the next time ... but well, they're really expensive. And I'm really looking forward to watching the Arabian Nights dinner show... so many dinner shows here! The rest will be visiting Holyland, which I'm skipping... shall spend some time shopping at the malls and outlet stores... hopefully there're nice things to buy, mid-semester break can't possibly feel complete without some retail therapy!