On to the food~

Tofu that Kerry ordered. It tasted very homemade and healthy (and bu that I don’t mean it is tasteless ok). Nice appetizer to share

Mren’s bakudan set! The natto and ladyfingers made the dish really sticky lol. Kerry took a mouth and had to flush it down with green tea. lol

Kerry’s soy porridge set. It was a tad too sweet for me but she loved it. It had the least calories among all the food in the menu!

My teriyaki chicken with basil sauce set! It was super nice! I loved the basil sause and the chicken was not oily or fatty. Plus there was lots of vege to go along with it. Superb!

Will totally eat here again XP

Disclaimer

I am not your typical CAP 4.9 mugger. My lecture attendance rate is around 50%, including non webcast modules. I probably know more about manga, anime and drama than economics, and I don’t really want to change that fact. I am just writing from a viewpoint of a student who wants to get decent grades without putting in too much effort.

Modules taken this sem:

JS1101E, JS2213, LAJ2201, EC3303, EC3371, MKT1003

JS1101E Introduction to Japanese Studies (Grade: B-)

This is one of those exposure modules that aim to cover too much and ends up failing. It basically covers Japanese history from the dawn of time (I am serious, but whether you consider the Kojiki to be history is totally subjective) to present.

You would have to memorise all the cold hard facts from the thick stack of readings for the finals which is a full MCQ paper. People always say not to get deceived by the word MCQ (or rather 3 words) but I didn’t think it was particularly difficult if you have your facts down.

My downfall was caused by the group project, which weighed 40%- the highest I have experienced. We got a C for the project so that pulled my grades down. My advice is to find group mates that have a similar topic of interest so that you can get your topic down fast the start working early. We took forever to choose the topic and it wasn’t a good one.

The rest of the marks comes from class participation and forum postings. Not too much to advice on that, just make a few intelligent, non one-liners posts and you should do fine.

My Rating: 3/5 Take only if you are interested in Japanese history. Readings are killers ):

JS2213 Popular Culture in Contemporary Japan (Grade: B+)

This is definitely the most interesting module I have taken in NUS! The lecturer is interesting and the topics covered are quite interesting too. Even the readings seem more interesting than other modules (lol) The TA (he took all the classes) was also interesting and clear in his explanations. As usual the killer was the group project. As you can tell from the title it is not easy to find topics on popular culture with relevant academic writing on them. Definitely important to get a good topic to work with. Finals was ok, 3 essays to write but manageable if you understand the concepts. The finals saved me quite a bit I think

My Rating: 4/5 Very interesting module! X)

LAJ2201 Japanese 2 (Grade: A-)

Language modules in NUS are always time consuming. The Japanese modules have 7 hours of lessons per week and you also need to put in time to study the vocab and do homework so it probably works out to 10 hours a week. Pretty bad if you are always packed with other modules. Nevertheless the heavy workload actually keeps you motivated to study consistently, especially with the weekly tests. If you are someone who lacks motivation without stress (like me), you should learn Japanese in NUS instead of trying to learn it on your own (which I totally failed at). The “interestingness” of the lesson depends very much on the sensei you get, so I shall not talk too much on that.

My Rating: 4/5 (Time consuming but you feel a sense of accomplishment doing it. lol)

EC3303 Econometrics 1 (Grade: B)

Now this is a module that I really don’t get. In fact it is one of those “legendary” modules in NUS Econs that hardly anyone gets, but somehow get by because it is a compulsory module. Concepts are really abstract and very mathematical. A good statistical background would be helpful in tackling the derivation of formulas and stuff.

It didn’t help that my lecturer was a greenhorn and a bad one at that. I have no offence against foreigners (only 1/6 of my modules this sem was taught by a Singaporean) but he was really kind of hard to understand. The good news is that he’s no longer doing the module this year heh.

This is just one of my “I am glad I made it through like everyone else” modules and I don’t really foresee myself needing it in the future. Not much to comment on since Econs students will have to take it anyway..

My Rating: 2/5

EC3371 Developmental Economics (Grade:B)

I have a love-hate relationship with this module. While it had the potential to be interesting, the lecturer kind of ruined it with his “creative” methods of assessments and made a lot of people pretty much pissed at him. A friend in my committee hates him with a passion. Bad news is that he is going to be teaching it the next 2 sems. He will probably keep trying to tweak the grading system but I hope he improves on it soon.

The exam format was that we had to practically dig out facts and evidence from the open-book materials and copy them into the answer script. I am serious. There was like 5% of the marks for something original but the rest was plain copy work.  That happened for both the midterms and finals. The rest of the marks came from a group essay that was actually quite interesting. The readings were also more interesting than other modules because it was about current affairs. It didn’t feel like an Econs module because we hardly used econs concepts.

My Rating: 3/5 (Thanks to the exam format)

MKT1003  Principles Of Marketing (Grade: A-)

Took it as a breadth. Totally slack module! The only time I did anything for this module was for the group project. Other than that, I totally did not turn up for any lectures (nor watch the webcasts until the week of the exams). Exam was open book so you don’t really have to memorise any concepts, just colour code your textbooks properly so that it is easier to find the word-for-word answers in the finals.

My Rating: 4.5/5 (I spent the least amount of time on it but my grade is much better than other modules!)

Taken while I was waiting for the bus to go to school for my last paper X)

Sorry for being random >>;;

Belle’s Squid Ink Seafood Pasta

The pasta itself tasted quite normal, but it made the whole of Belle’s lips and mouth black! It was kinda funny lol.

June’s Salmon and Salmon Roe Pasta

It’s kinda like Oyako Don, yeah. Salmon and salmon eggs lol. I didn’t try it, but it was kinda dry, like most of their wafu sauce pastas.

My Creamy Crab Pasta

It was really creamy, made me really full, even when I went to sleep at 2am (ate this at like, 7.30pm?!) Not bad, but I am not sure if its worth the money cos it was just a few pieces of crab meat and a crab claw. :/

I have been making lunch on my own. Mostly soba because it’s healthy and easy to make.  Here’s a picture of my first attempt, soba with mushroom. It tasted quite good actually XP

Song of the Day: Mayanaka no Shadowboy- Hey Say! Jump [Download]

Thursday- Meran and I went to Kerry’s house! We had quite a spread for lunch cos of all the 加菜 to the soba lol. Played Wii and Taboo Tried to play Pictionary but it was quite fail because I could not draw XP;;; In the end we ended watching 小娘惹 D8 Hardly remember anything about it because I was never really into it. lol.

Song(s) of the Day~
SS501 Wings of the World 세상의 날개.mp3 [SS501 - 13. Wings of the World 세상의 날개.mp3">Download]
KAT-TUN -White Xmas.mp3 [Download]

I actually think the songs sound quite similiar, in a Xmas-y kinda way. Both are really beautiful <3

Anyway. Entered university. 2 sems over, $7000 spent :O

Today Kerry and I went to City Square Mall. It is quite a not happening place although the Japanese food street was quite interesting. Ate Chashu Ramen =) It was quite good. Not as salty as Ajisen and cheaper! Kerry ate some black looking beef patty omelette rice lol. Looked salty. I should really keep a food diary again to keep track of the calories. Don’t wanna gain weight in the holidays zzzz.

Wanted to get a puff sleeve top from Cotton On but it was 2 for $30 and Kerry didn’t want to share :/ Ended up getting slippers lol. Also went to the super small arcade to play some games. Quite lame really.

After that we wanted to go to Mustafa but somehow we ended walking to Novena!! Had to walk past CDC where Kerry worked and walk through TTSH :O LOL. It rained just when we reached Novena, what a relief. lol. Novena is also quite not happening.. Bought some food to cook at Kerry’s house on Thurday when Meran and I go over to play =)

Downloaded FT Island albums =) I am NOT a pedophile :O Although Kerry says so. (not because of FT lol) I can’t help it if people like Yamada Ryosuke are cute and don’t grow up right :/ Haixx.

No pictures today cos I don’t have a card reader although I am Kerry’s camera with me. lol. Shall use a picture I took of myself wearing the Bonitochico Feather Tee in Pink <3

Love this top <3 So comfy and quite cheap (compared to usual BC stuff, although it is not self manu). My mum complains about the sequins and beads being held by only a fragile string, though. lol

Song of the day!! <3

01 Still – Lee Hong Ki (You’re beautiful OST).mp3 [Download]

Yes I am FT Island crazy sorry. Anyway. Prefer this version to the AN Jell version =)

Shall go catch all the blogshop launches now~

Cheerleading was good though. At least for some houses. Cheetah, was as usual, fantastic. If cheerleading was included in the tally, we would not have been 4th again. Poor juniors, they have to sit at that lousy spot again next year. And Puma would get the ulu shuttle run area next year >D Puma’s standards have definitely gone down this year, both in track and cheerleading. Maggie and I were giving mean comments about all the houses, but Puma really got it bad. Didn’t hep that they were the first to start. They just made Panther look way better after them, especially since Jaguar was right after.

Qi and I were arguing about Jaguar’s performance, and I thought their costumes were kinda.. not very high class. The “wushu” segment was good, and everyone around me were saying that they should do it more. And get cheerleaders with better figures, especially if they were wearing skin coloured leotards.

… the above content doesn’t go with my title *horrified*

Then again, nothing much happened today, except maybe class photo taking, which I am sure I look terrible since my hair was flying all over and despite it being a formal photo I had to bend slightly because I was blocking the guys behind me (like please lah how can 1.66m me block 1.85m Kian Song?) Didn’t helo that I was standing beside Yan Hao. Sure look short de D< I miss my primary and secondary school days where I was always one of the tallest in class.

Hmm. This looks about a good length for a second post. Hah.

It is not like school’s interesting enough for anyone to care, really.

[/end first post]