Saturday, March 27, 2004
- You know those nice Christmas cards you see sometimes in stores? Those with beautiful landscapes of snow, littered with white trees glistening with lovely coloured lights and stars glittering prettily in the sky above? Ever looked at them and thought to yourself, sigh, I wish I was in a snowy landscape with my beloved, holding his/her hand as we romantically walk through the peaceful, undisturbed snowscape? Well, as it turns out, this might well be one of the most athletic pair-activities around, ranking right up there with mixed doubles, pair figure skating and shopping.
Why walking on snow should be considered for the Olympics
Ice
Near impossible to walk steadily on, this is a true test of balance, and provides a good workout for your calves and thighs. Also helps if you like to imitate wildly flapping penguins. This hazard appears on all well trodden paths, forcing you, the hapless walker, to go off them and plunge right into
Deep Snow
Always a lovely surprise, because you can't always tell where ground level is. So instead of taking a normal step you end up sticking half your leg into the snow. Way to get pants wet without actually peeing in them. Tests your endurance by freezing your legs off. Is a good friend of
Mud
Dirt + Water = Mud, which sticks to your clothes (and you). Dirty. 'Nuff said.
Wind
Where would we be without this lovely element? As if the cold isn't bad enough, this gets in your face no matter where you turn, in its never ending experiment to find out if your vitreous humour can be frozen.
The list goes on, but you get the idea. Winter is bad. Snow is bad. Cold is bad. And now its (officially) at least over!
To commemorate this event, I decided to head to the Bahamas.
The cutest 1 cent coin around
So we had a 7am flight to catch, and I thought to myself, ok, I think 5 am will be a good time to reach the airport. Then Walter pointed out that hey, we were flying to Charlotte first, and so we could actually leave at 5, reach O'Hare at around 5.30 - 5.45, and have plenty of time to spare. Fine. Come Monday Morning....
Event 1: Hear insistent knocking on door.
Event 2: Eyes open. It's Gerri! What does she want?
Event 3: To tell us its 5:30.
Event 4: C-R-A-P.
So we RUSHED down to the airport, praying very hard that we wouldn't miss our flight, and, trust me, this was one of the closest calls I've ever had as far as catching a flight is concerned. I mean when we reached the gate the attendants were like "Oh they're here!" And it felt sooo bad to be the last people on the plane and you feel like you've held everyone up. Anyway, so we thought we were really lucky, and had a pretty uneventful flight to the Bahamas.
And so we reached the Bahamas, still not believing we had actually made the flight, and thinking, darn, we're pretty lucky people. Then we went to get our luggage. The Bahamas airport is pretty funky. It has no machinery in it, and baggage claim is (literally) 2 men chucking your bags through an open window, and everyone left to pick through the pile and find their own bags. No fancy conveyor belt or whatever. In any case, we waited for our bags. And waited. And waited.
Then they closed the window. No more bags, they said. No bags, we had.
Crap.
Stay tuned for Part 2: Baggage-less in Bahamas: The Search for Clean Underwear
(Not trying to keep you all in suspense la, just tired =P)
nayko |8:41 AM
Thursday, March 25, 2004
- Just for clarification, yes, "next Tuesday" was over loooong ago, but I had 2 more finals after that, on Thursday and Friday. And then I went off to the Bahamas for Spring Break, just getting back today. Heehee so sorry all for just disappearing. Anyway, I would write some, but I'm really tired today, so tomorrow or the day after maybe...
nayko |9:44 PM
Friday, March 12, 2004
- In case you all are wondering why its so quiet in here, no, I haven't died yet.
That's scheduled for next Tuesday (2 papers, 1 final due in 3 hours). =(
nayko |1:13 PM
Thursday, March 04, 2004
- You know, it's funny how much an overseas education means to some people nowadays. To pursue higher education abroad, some are willing to take scholarships to companies they don't want to be attached to, invest in stocks at the age of 6 to make $500.000 by the time they reach college-attending age, kill siblings to remove competition for parents money, etc. There's just no telling what people might do!
So the question we must ask now is: is it all worth it, really? Just how high is the standard of education here? Are you really up to it? For all those with these burning questions, I suggest you take this test to find out.
Gems from this test include:
How many halves are there in a college basketball match?
How many quarters are there in a high school basketball match?
How many points is a 3 point shot worth?
Ah, the wonders of an overseas education.
Note: This is an actual final exam from a course in the University of Georgia.
nayko |9:52 AM
Wednesday, March 03, 2004
- For all of you who have iPods out there, I mock you, for iPods are so yesterday. I predict that this baby will be all the new rage.
Now you (yes, you!) can, as you've always dreamed, terrorize a bank full of people while listening to the soundtrack of The Little Mermaid.
nayko |10:45 PM
- Well, folks, it's that time of the quarter again, where the skies go dark, the heavens frown as finals approacheth. At times like these all professors forget their students actually take other classes, and unleash their hell bent furies of work upon their hapless, pleading students. So next week promises to be a crazy crazy week ahead. And the week after. And after.
Still, its nice to know that amongst all this doom and gloom, amusing stuff never ceases to happen.
Burnt-out car gets parking tickets
You just have to love them over enthusiastic traffic wardens.
nayko |11:12 AM