06-05-2009

I'll be disembarking from Singapore later today. Singapore is a fine city.



This is the room where I took my last exam, only a third or so of the students in the room can be seen here. The room was very large and students from four different courses were taking their tests there.
This is the fabled Merlion: half lion, half fish, half silly. Legend has it that the Merlion comes once every century and spits water on your face.

All the other countries have friendly, museum style embassies, but the American embassy looks like an evil fortress. I'm not sure I was even allowed to take a picture of it.
It's good to know that if there is some sort of attack or disaster you can just go chill in a large concrete fortress.

If you are going to Singapore only take shorts, and leave plenty of room in your luggage for new stuff. This is my advice to you.

24-04-2009

I spent the last couple of days in Bintan, Indonesia, a nearby island just a little bigger than Singapore. Bintan is known for its sweet beaches and resorts. I went there with three fellows following my second exam for the purpose of rest and relaxation. I got all that I wanted and at an affordable price. My sunscreen was confiscated so I may have gotten a sunburn for free as well.

We stayed at a small resort for a steep 7 USD a night. Most of the time it seemed like we were the only people there; since it was midweek the whole place seemed deserted. However there were plenty of incredibly hospitable employees who helped us with whatever and what-have-you. The weather was beautiful the entire time we were there, but it was even hotter than Singapore.

One of the two pools at the resort, the water was actually warmer than I would have liked:

We stayed in a more traditional hotel style room, rather than one of these sweet bungalows, not by my choice. The beach where we played volleyball and Frisbee:


This is the restaurant in which we had our dinner. As you can see, we were the only people there.
My last paper will be this upcoming Tuesday. I was disappointed to find that our grades probably won't be released until June, and even then only the final grade is given. I will never know how I did on my projects, labs, or final exams.

15-04-2009

I have now completed my first of three finals. Finals are spread out over the course of three and a half weeks, quite different than the one and a half weeks given at RPI. Students here tend to take a much larger course load so the extended period is desired to accommodate the plethora of exams. Students also spend much more time studying because the exam is worth such a large percentage of your final grade; the average final exam is worth seventy or eighty percent of your grade.

The exam itself is extremely intense. They fill entire halls with hundreds of equally spaced desks, all facing the same direction. They sent out final exam regulations requiring your electronic signature. Ten minutes prior to the start of the exam, an "invigilator" reads off actions that will result in expulsion, over the PA system. Calculators must be checked and all memory erased. The exam has a dress code. The whole thing was rather intimidating and there was a loud thunderstorm during my final which added to the ominous atmosphere. I believe I passed though which is what ultimately matters. I would have liked to take a picture of the regulation examination hall but would be scared of getting expelled for bringing a camera into the hall; it seemed like a high security military research facility.

Most manikins in South-east Asia do not have heads, but for the ones that do this is standard procedure:

I recently experienced a laptop tragedy. In an attempt to play a network game with an off-campus local, I installed a free network adapter from the Internet. It did not work and as a result of installing it my computer FLIPPED out and would not let me access the Internet. My mouse cursor was spazzing out and windows would not shutdown properly. A number of people spent hours trying to fix the problem and spending a couple hours at the campus tech desk did nothing for the problem. Normally I would take my laptop to the RPI help desk and let them work their magic but that resource is unavailable here. I eventually bypassed the issue by installing Linux; when I get back to RPI I can re-image. Linux is fun but it makes using some applications very difficult...


This tree has cool roots. There is a chap in the background named Graham; he attends college in Buffalo.