Project: College

It's my 3rd year in college. And (sadly) it only just hit me- there's so much more that I can do with my extra time.

There's always that one step you have to take, that initial step. Figured once the ball starts rolling, the only thing left to do is finish what you started, win the game gracefully and majestically.

*ah the metaphors*

The idea is to capture the essence of college. Mostly in my point of view, but hopefully just as much of how other people view college life as well. I'll be documenting the rest of my college days with the help of a couple of devices.

1. A new notebook that I started, "College: What Do You Remember?"
2. A video camera, which I will hopefully have purchased once returning back to Malaysia
3. A voice recorder, for sound bites and such

The book will travel within a fairly large group of friends, about 20-30 of us (and more in the years to come). During the breaks or when no one is really writing in said book, I will find the time to mail it to graduates and international students who would be interested in penning down their own memories.

After the book is filled, I'll try to get a copy to anyone who wants one.

By then, the book should have been filled with scribbles and scrawls of all kinds of memories, events, peoples and lives! Pictures and tacks and inserts of random things and jottings made on random pieces of paper stuffed into the pocket folders.

I can only say that I'm excited for the day when the book will be completed.

Wish me good luck!
And if you feel like doing the same, I wish you all the best too! :)

Little-Big-Things

Like a child agog with excitement, I want to venture out into the world, curious, eager and full of questions.

Life just radiates such iridescence, enticing opportunities, enchanting, truculent moments of emotion, intensity and brilliance.

How can you not be motivated!!

This is what college is supposed to be about!
Professors who inspire kids to want to do everything possible to get where they want to be. Their advice is priceless. They've been out there in the big bad World. And you don't know what you'll get until you ask.

I want to write features, write articles, interview people, find out about people's lives, places and their meaning, explore, learn and tell the World!

I want to write forever.

ah...

The Slanted Horizon by ~RakelClark on deviantART

Dark clouds may loom, but the Earth turns and its a new day.

I'll take my coffee with a little half-and-half.
I'll have that chocolate chip cookie.
I'll forget sunblock and get freckles.
I'll dive into my passion and treat it as an art.

There's no need to be afraid to do the things you want.

I guess all I need now is to get my foot out the door.

Day 4 Thanksgiving Break 09

I am fed up with fast food.

We walked into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum... to eat Mc'Ds. Of course there would be a Mc'Ds. With more lines than I could remember- and lines meaning counter-serving-customers, so that we could pile in all this guck into our system. Lovely. Just peachy.

*cough*

We left the Golden Arches and headed out into the sun!

Ah, what glorious weather!

Managed to get closer last time.
But I guess they don't want any weird couples hopping the fence.

I wish that I could have had more time to take pictures. I should really go again on my own. No rush.


I have to admit, the 'mall' and surrounding areas were really well taken care of. Of course, all the tax dollars were worth it.

Emo pic of the day

The crowd was crazy! I thought everyone else would be taking the day off.


We paid Abe a visit.

I have no pictures of the guy who said "Party on dudes!!" from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure... or any (good) pictures of Abe, as heads a plenty filled up the corner of my lens.

Korean War Veterans Memorial

Walking around the Washington Mall can be rather tiring... especially for 5 hours. You may think I might be exaggerating, but plus or minus, that's how long we spent walking around. On top of that, we wandered back into the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum, not to be confused with the Museum of Flight (judging from the pictures up on their website, seems like a much cooler place to have gone to).


I spent most of my time in the WWI and WWII exhibitions. It's pretty darn interesting. Especially since I did not want to run from one exhilarating exhibition to the next, I leisurely read through the articles and critiqued the newspapers/photos/writing with my journalistic methods... something I would have never done if not for having learned the stuff I know!

Returning back to Rider and Gee Hall was such a welcoming feeling. The Family, or people who had already returned to Gee, made me feel like this was a home to return to.

After 4 days on the road, I've had a lot of time to think about things. Silence is the bringer of wisdom, me thinks.

All in all: was an interesting trip.

And finally, I made rice.
Thank you for those lovely morsels of grain.

Day 3 Thanksgiving Break 09

After spending most of the night deciding what time we should get up head to the mall- we settled on leaving at 7am.

Yes.

7am to leave for the mall- which was only but 15 minutes away.

We did not leave at 7am, in fact, because that was the time I woke up.

Despite being about an hour late, we made it to the mall on time- no crowds, no lines and free parking. The mall was deserted to say the least. There weren’t any crowds! Which ranks as fantastic in my book: not having to deal with long queues is always a plus.

I don’t think I’ve ever shopped so much, so fast, and spent so much money in such a short amount of time. But yes, I entered at 830am, and left at noonish. Hands full of bags.

Surprise surprise!

lunch was at burger king. And I say this with all the love I could muster for fast food-…. Urgh.

We headed northward, towards Washington DC, but not before stopping at an outlet. Yes, shopping once again.

This mall was LONG. One floor- like most American outlets and shopping centers, they don’t surpass 3-4 levels.

Finally reached dc- and checked into the holiday inn. We ordered dominoes and watched Bring It On. Haha! We set off at 10pm to check out the sights at night. And let me tell you- no amount of dominoes could have helped me brave the cold that awaited us.

It was tit-and-arse-freezing.

Our first and only stop that night was to the Washington Monument.

And the wind was blowing like mad! And the flags were whipping furiously in the wind. I thought it would have been possible that if the wind picked up only one notch, that the poles would be uprooted.

Wish I had a tripod!

Beat from the day, wresting with many other Black Friday shoppers, I zonk out.

Day 2 Thanksgiving Break 09

We headed off from Ocean City – not before having some breakfast at the diner across the street.

Customers were mostly old folk and young’ens. Despite the tacky décor of fake surf gear, an oversized pirate figure, complete with wooden leg and multicolored parrot.

Omelets were good. Found out today that there was actually such a thing as a drive thru pharmacy at CVS.

On the road again- we head off to Virginia Beach!

We stopped at the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge.

Marshland

It was part of a thin strip of island- lots of marshes and tall grass.nothing much to see, really- I thought it was nice driving through the marshland though-

Our car - the PT Cruiser

The beach (at the refuge) was freezing- I don’t know how it could have been a tourist attraction – I’m guessing it’s a hot spot during the beach season.

Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge

Once again, our unrequited love for the asphalt continues to burn up miles on the odometer.

After a toll before the Chesapeake bridge, we swerved to the right to get a nice view of the open ocean.

I guess I’m really good with sleeping just about anywhere- because I wake up one moment and I’m in a different place. We had reached Virginia Beach. We pulled up to a small housing area and walked down a small pathway to the beach.

The houses were awesomely splendid. Majestic looking beauties… among the beasts of holiday homes that overlooked the ocean.

The sun was out, fortunately. And some nice pictures of wheat-like whatever tall-grass-things were stored away on my 8Gigabyte memory card.

wheat-like tall-grass thingies

random seashell on the beach

We then proceeded to look for food. Like, seriously search for food. On the highway, we spotted an exit…. Applebees! We were saved. That was our Thanksgiving dinner. It was enjoyable- a better kind of fast food dinner along with some light conversation, and then some. We proceeded to the next town, Norfolk- to be closer to the MacArthur Center –shopping on black Friday.

We arrived in Norfolk/Portsmouth and searched for a place for the night. We drove around, our trusty TomTom “the bitch” GPS guiding us all the way. Driving further away from the city center, we got closer to the shady bits of the neighborhood. And I do mean, SHADY

Finally, we stopped at the Quality Inn, the same branch we stayed at the previous night. I walked into the ‘lobby’, a strong pong, a mixture of incense, dead flowers, curry and unknown odors smacked me in the face. It was probably the 4^th place we decided to settle on- for the cheapest price of $70.

Did you ever watch the movie Vacancy? Google it. Starring Luke Wilson. A complete flop of a movie- and the place we pulled up to looked exactly like the motel where Luke Wilson's character nearly died.

Anyways, we signed up, got the key and walked into our room. This time, the smell that came from the room was so powerful, I felt it sink into my clothes and start to eat away at the fabric like some super-acid.

We were hesitant, standing close to the doorway, wrinkling our noses at the icky room. We scope. We don't even sit on the bed. We find a left-over Q-Tip on the air-conditioner. We BOUNCE.

$30 extra for the motel next door,but we took it anyways- for certain that it would buy us a guarantee that we would not encounter a similar room.

Adventures during the night-

at the pier

We headed into the city to get some $dosh$ for Black Friday. Some lady had her exhaust dislodge itself, anchoring the car at the entrance to the ATM. Pretty funny- how something like that could happen.

There was a battleship anchored nearby- so we went to see that.

The Nauticus

I'm pretty proud of this picture, as it's pretty sharp, despite not having a tripod.

There were also these interesting looking memorial thingies at the dock.

such poetry.

We then went in search of the harbor side where the battleships docked. We went around like maniacs clicking away at the GPS to find an accessible route to the seaside. Unfortunately, it was limited access and all the entry gates had checkpoints. *too bad I couldn't rope myself a hottie army man, as none were trotting the streets at 11pm

We did however, have ourselves one heck of an adventure- we stopped by a housing area to take pictures.

my awesomeness despite not having a tripod!

Julie hopped out of the car to take a picture of the "Powhatan Street" sign - Powhatan from Pocahontas, she said. Too bad I wasn't speedy enough to get a picture of her taking a picture of the sign.

Thus ended our (long ass) second day.

Day 1 Thanksgiving Break 09

Headed out bright an' early this morning at 9a.m. in our white PT Cruiser. Bags all packed: camera bag, handbag, backpack and hand-carry suitcase. The three of us (Myself plus the French: Thibaut Bernigaud, Leon and Julie Leheu, Paris), begun our 4-day journey. We drive out of Rider University, deserted as them kids hath run-eth back to their hearty Thanksgiving feasts.

The first meal of the day: McDonald's Burrito.

Welcome to America!

The dreary weather did not make the scenery any more interesting, the blandness of highway and bare trees making it an absolutely delightful 'countryside'.

Pardon my sarcasm.

We stopped at a beach in Cape May before finding the our ferry to take us to the other side of Delaware)

I have no idea where we were, really.

We boarded the ferry at Cape May, DE, drove our cute vanilla colored PT Cruiser up onto the ferry.


Our driver, Thibaut, took a nap on the ferry while Julie rested her eyes, basking in the gloriousness that comes with owning an Ipod. Yes, we love you Apple. They rested while I wrote about 5 pages of mind garble on questions of life and where I should travel to next.

I wish I could say something interesting about the lovely colors of passing quintessential towns, but I slept most of the way, having had indulged in licentious... no, too strong a word... indulged in disfavor-able activities the night before.

I woke up and we were in Ocean City, MD. The streets were empty and deserted. No traffic. No cute families crossing the street. It was dark and mist had settled. We had come to a ghost town.

As I'm writing this in my hotel room of the Quality Inn, room 321, it is now only 7:15pm. A miracle- I'm in bed.


We had parked the car at the entrance of the boardwalk and took off in search of food. Everything was closing fast, unusually annoying since at the time it was only 4:00pm. We settled for a fast food place (better than McDonalds) and had your very basic, impossible to screw up, plain burgers and fries and sandwiches.

Still managed to get my chocolate fudge and saltwater taffy despite the closed beach season and close to zero shops being open.

pretty mural at the boardwalk

The plan now is sleep. For one that slept a fair bit of the drive, I'm pretty knackered. Waking up at 6am seems like a lifetime away.

Till my next able internet connection,
Cherrio!

ramblings of a maddened poet

At first, when your heart is broken and you're hurt and crying all over the floor, you think it's all over. Then you take the plunge and come out the other side unscathed. You're puzzled at why its even possible to go through all that hell and be able to emerge still breathing, living and sane. Mixed feelings of sorrow, incapable of even moving and thinking, confusion and head being tunred in all directions with everything coming to you at once! Like cold waves washing over my skin, the coolness sweeps and tangles in me. I feel it in my heart. And I even feel it in my mind- it makes a silence, that has an octave scale of its own. I feel deaf, but then I know I am not. The waves make shapes of a memory that is not mine.

stolen glance

it creeps into my heart
and circles my mind
the flashbacks make me queasy
it was untainted
and now it is spoiled
when one moment a heart can swell
in another it is exhausted
search for strength
it is in nature
the warmth of the earth
and the healing of time
perhaps one day a smile will be genuine
and there will be no secrets
and no locked doors
but open arms and warm beds
for the lonely to be loved
and the loved to be cherished.