mannn, what a week. the exams are over, YAY! wasn't so much of a relief this semester, because although i was taking 4 level 300 accounting courses, i have to say i did really slack off quite a lot. i'm not really sure why, but the motivation was severely lacking this sem. i've gotten an A- for accounting theory though, when i thought i would get a B at best, so all is now well with the world. until my tax planning grade comes out. god that exam made me feel dumb.

anyway! the drama this week has been all about the flights. i was waiting for my insurance policy number, so i could get my exchange confirmed, so i could apply for the student loan, so i could book my flights. (which sounds a bit like that old kid's rhyme about the old woman who swallowed the fly.) and due to that rigmarole taking over a week, my flights went up in total by 426 bucks. ouch? ouch. fuuuuck. and this for an exchange that is costing me more almost literally every time i turn around. (witness the almost 600 bucks to be spent on? VACCINES.) ARGH. lucky i'm working, even though work is in a completely chinese-speaking environment full of people younger than me with whom i have absolutely nothing in common. which is 1.5 hours away from my house. my colleagues -are- nice though, just.. young.

eventually though, i did get to book the flights (which itself was an exercise in patience and keeping my temper, due to my amazing blindness and stupidity), and i am now almost $4000 the poorer, but going to go to south america, so i'm sure eventually this will alllll appear to be for the best. i hope.

at one point i was just hoping it would all go away, and i could just withdraw from the program and never mention it again, but i'm starting to get a little excited about it once more. a little. sigh. i'm going to use up money that i've been saving since i was working in the dubliner, 5 years ago. ALL my savings, gone on one semester abroad. not counting the 11500 bucks in debt that i will find myself in when i return. i'd better get a damn good job.

ARRRRRRRGH.

ok, now i'm getting that stressed out knot in my stomach again. sod this, i'm going to go read til the AMA grades come out at midnight.

Labels: exchange, SMU

am supposed to be studying for my exams, which are now rather scarily close. instead, i'm attempting to prune my bloglines collection of feeds, which when i checked this morning, had hit 13000+ unread articles. yargh. i also have not read some of these blogs since 2006 (!). definitely time for a pruning.

in other (exchange-related) news, i have found a doctor not only willing to give me a certificate of health, but also who is willing to try and get all the vaccines i will need! and there are a LOT of them. yellow fever, rabies, typhoid, hep B, tetanus.. and they're not cheap. yellow fever and rabies alone are going to be more than 400 bucks. :S very financially-unsound idea. sigh.

and there's that blasted closing time song again. time to vacate the library!

Labels: exchange, SMU

Oops. And there I go disappearing off the face of the earth again. Oh well.

Before I begin on the topic proper; MOD TERM SUCKS. accounting theory is a pain. and week 13 is horrendous. Now, on to happier things.

If you have somehow managed to escape either my excited squeals on Friday, or the ensuing email deluge, I have finally gotten confirmation about my exchange! (some part of me still doesn't -quite- expect it to happen, and is waiting for the other shoe to drop. perhaps in the form of a declined visa, etc. argh, fingers crossed.) South America, at last! OH, the EXCITEMENT.

and the trepidation! heh. I've been looking up information the past two weeks, in between the AMA, AT and other accounting crap, and I'm feeling a little intimidated. Meep. I think one small part of me was hoping I wouldn't get it all along, cos there's now a hell of a lot to do.

Including finding about 10,000 bucks in a dumpster somewhere. And trying to improve my rather average swimming skills, since for at least one of my classes, I've heard mention that you spend more time in the water than on dry land. Presentations? On a whiteboard, apparently. While on the beach. Cheapest flight I've found so far is about S$3600. Also, perhaps learning some Spanish, since it's homestay accommodation, and none of the families speak English. I somehow doubt basic mandarin is going to help me out there either. Perhaps a bit of a brushup on basic biology and genetics, since my Dip in Biotech is now 5 years old, and most of the folks are going to be bio majors.

I also need to find a wholesaler of vats of sunblock. VATS.

Labels: :), exchange

grar.

please please please let me either go for exchange now or graduate.

and could people from my past stop turning up and flicking the switch marked "mild emotional turmoil & nostalgia"?

i'd really appreciate it.

*bashes head against convenient wall*

it's so nice to be on holiday again. lol. so far it's been great in Ho Chi Minh, lots of fabulous food, really nice, non-pushy people, and afternoon naps galore. haha.

we started out yesterday doing the usual first day orientation walkabout, and had dinner at this fabulous place called quan an ngon. busy as heck, though not mostly westerners, thank goodness, but really nice atmosphere, lots of palm trees, indirect lighting, that sort of thing, and mostly al fresco. huuuuge place, bustling, and more employees than i've ever seen in one restaurant. everyone seemed to know what they were doing though, no panic anywhere. the waitress in me approves. haha. we had snails in coconut milk, some beef pho, rice with assorted pork.. stuff, and amaaazing soursop shakes. YUM.

then today was spent facing my DS lite as my mum discussed patterns, piping, alterations and panel insets with the tailor. lol. lucky i brought a few new games. then ben thanh to browse the shops.. i wish i was rather more settled, because there were so many lovely lacquerware items, and teapots, and paintings, but i can't let myself buy anything i can't bring with me. :(

since my brother's not with us, i am default resident pack mule, and ended up carrying my mum's 3kg of cashew nuts, 2kg of dried longans etc etc. i have nooo idea how she's going to finish them. and we're buying more when we get back to HCM, as gifts. (she says.) lucky the hotel has agreed to keep some of our luggage for the few days we're in dalat, or i would just die lugging it around.

i wandered off while my mum was arguing about the crunchiness factor of the various cashews, and met this lovely lady in charge of a tiny little shop chock full of random dried stuff. she was literally packed into a corner of the shop, i couldn't see any way for her to get out. and she had passionfruits!! so we bought half a kilo of them, and she was so concerned that we'd believe that they were indeed 'number one' that she insisted on cutting another open for us to try, handing us two tiny teaspoons to scoop the wonderful bright yellow stuff out. yum. so we bought another half a kilo. lol. we wanted to buy more stuff from her, cos she was lovely, but unfortunately she just didn't have that much that we could use. mostly stuff for actual cooking, rather than snacks. and then we got custard apples on the way back to the hotel.

swoons. FRUIT overload, i tell you. i loves it.

lunch was beef pho at some roadside cafe, and we got to talking to our waiter, who was also really nice, when we said we were from singapore, he started drawing the petronas towers, lol, and after being informed that that was actually malaysia, drew the merlion instead. hee. so cute. he did say that he wanted to go to singapore to work, but the agents charge US$1000, and he earns US$100 a month. :S which is what.. S$5 a day? made sure i tipped him when we left.

and tonight we went to fanny's, which is this french-vietnamese ice cream cafe, and we demolished like.. 7 scoops of ice cream and a crepe for dinner for about S$10. and the service was great. as was the ice cream. the standouts were the passionfruit (again!) sorbet, the ginger ice cream and the soursop sorbet. fabulousness.

has anyone noticed that this post has been 90% about food? lol. oops.

and so to bed, for our bus to dalat leaves at 7.30am tomorrow. 7 hour bus trip, yay!

so annoyed. i know that there are a lot of hidebound, stupid, useless people around, but why does my darling school have some sort of ineffable tendency to select for them? they're supposed to be teaching HR aren't they? isn't there something in that discipline that teaches that you should hire competent people?

hiding behind protocol with no other reason that because it IS protocol is stupid, and illogical. perhaps we should be making our darling admin personnel take Analytical Skills. tis only a half module after all.

pah. enough. i suppose things will work themselves out one way or another. but i'm fed up to the back teeth of people who keep telling me that i can't do things because that's not how things are done rather than for any real, logical reason. (that they are able to communicate, anyway. communication appears to be a real problem for some.)

bloody annoying.

perhaps someone should on occasion remind them that one of their functions is to occasionally help students, not stand in their way on every possible occasion. and that not all of us are happy to trot along the most convenient route for them, following all the other sheep.

Labels: gripes

listening to: monday rain - kate voegele

yikes, haven't updated in a while. tis funny thinking back to when i updated basically every single day. where did i find the time?

been interning at an audit firm anyway, which hasn't been all that thrilling, and has resulted in a number of late nights, and endless longing for the weekends. i don't know about this career choice. :S

have also made the momentous decision to skip exchange, and graduate this december instead. it's just way too much money, and i am way, way, way too broke. the hell with being 10k in debt as soon as i graduate. pah! of course, this means that my last semester shall be very sad indeed, with jayme, sai, sean etc all running off on exchange, and stephie and amira graduating this sem. i shall spend my 25th (!) birthday sitting in the course reserve studying by myself this year. cries.

gods, i'm going to be 25. HELP.

in the meantime, am trying to plan what to do after i graduate, cos there are plans aplenty, but not much in the way of cash. think i shall have to skip interning this summer for a slightly better paying job to save up for next year. trying to find out about alternative ways of doing the US work & travel thing again without paying through the nose for CIEE sponsorship. no luck so far, but i've got a few months yet. :)

vietnam next week! :D

Labels: planning, W+T, work