Avoiding work

I've been rapidly catching up on my latest television obsessions: Lost, Prison Break, and 24.

I watched Miracle, the Disney about the 1980 U.S. Hockey team in the Olympics.

Chung King Express is an interesting Hong Kong movie. Apparently, Faye Wong, one of the actresses, is actually or was a really popular rock star in China. She was known as the "Madonna of Mandarin." In the movie, she looked really cute, like a pixie, singing and dancing along to The Cranberry song, California.

I've been researching on various things:
summer programs in Bengal
Burma-Siam Railway memoirs
Zhang Yimou films

I ate Oreos and milk tonight. I loved how the cream and cookie melted or became soft and mushy-like when I dipped it in milk.

Today was a super day in Ithaca. I wore flip-flops and my light coat. I had lunch on Olin Terrace.

I met with Prof. Paterson. Her office is pretty awesome, with a photo of Aung Sang San, the Burmese political heroine, who is on-and-off house arrest in this turbulent country, also known as Mynamar.

Yearbooking Culture

Shashi and I just returned from our visit to the Jostens plant in State College, Pennsylvania today.
Yesterday, after some conversation about what to pack and what to wear we walked to WSH. Jack drove us rode in his green Pathfinder, listening to "I'm In Luv With a Stripper" by T-Pain on the satellite radio, among other Top 20 Hits. We also made the trip is really good time, turning a normal 4 hours trip in just 3.5 hours.

We entered State College, which is where Penn State is located. Penn State dorms were really nice. It's like Ithaca, in that there's a College Avenue, lots of bars, neat handy-craft shops (and Avant Garden), similar food places including one serving "Exotic Indian Cuisine."

We checked into our hotel, Days Inn. The lobby area was really beautiful. It was like a mini-town inside the lobby with a a huge clock, artificial garden/pond area and high black gates that went over your head, and even a gazebo-kind-of-thing. Shashi and I shared room 200, past the ice machine. We each had our own queen-sized bed and massive amounts of blankets and covers.

Then, Shashi and I explored the neighborhood. We went into a couple of different shops with huge stuffed animals and puppets and crafts. We didn't buy anything, though we could have decked out in lots of Penn State attire. We saw a lot of parallel features of the neighborhood to C-town. We also wanted to get tattoos of the Penn State mascot, but I wasn't sure what it was exactly. (It's the lion, btw.) We passed by a tanning salon where all the tanning booths had shoes in front of them, meaning that they were occupied, and there was a long line of people waiting too to get brown.

We met Jack in the lobby back in Days Inn, and then walked some more around before going to the Tavern. We had dinner with Jack, Rick, Sandy, and Christy. They were all very fun and friendly and outgoing. Their stories made the yearbooking life seem so interesting, with lots of traveling, drinking, and memoires of cracking Rick's back with a chair, etc. I also learned that the largest island in freshwater surroundings is in Lake Huron. It's a Canadian island, M-something. For dinner, I had a tuna steak with lime red butter. I also had cottage cheese and fruit and spiced apple sauce. For dessert, I had the best seller humongous apple pie and vanilla ice cream. Boy, was I full!

We walked around again, after finding out Zeno's had a $2 cover, we went to Days Inn. We watched Sister Act 2 after much channel surfing. Then Shashi went to sleep, since she'd been up since 2am. I watched the end of the NCAA game with Texas and WVA. OMG. The final 10 minutes was a back-and-forth-anyone-can-win kind of game. When #12 Paulino of Texas made the 3-pointer right AT THE BUZZER, I literally sat up in my bed, and almost screamed with joy. But I controlled myself, and I didn't disturb anyone. I'm looking forward to watching more games. It's going to be MADNESS!

We went to the Waffle Shoppe for breakfast the next morning. I had a banana pecan waffle, since waffles are their specialty. There were lots of familys in a bright warm yellow-orangey restaurant.

We went down to the Josten's plant. Over 500 employees work there. There are different departments in this huge warehouse-kind of building. We took a tour of the process from design to mail to proofs to trendsetters to synergy to black cyan magenta yellow color magic. We also got to see actual pages that were printed off the presses; it was awesome to see the signatures on huge sheets of paper. There's also a paper cutter that releases 3 tons of force when it cuts; the guy who was operating the machine had a band-aid on his finger, but so far no one has lost a limb. Also a "clean-room" where there was a crock-pot ourtside the door 3 years ago. Then we had pizza for lunch. Lots of good conversation and gossiping about TV shows, movies, and about yearbook conference attendees who think "Harvard is like a tomato." Period. Everyone was so pleasant. I can see how people would like to work for the company, and be a part of the yearbook culture.

We got back to Ithaca on Friday at 6pm, so the drive back was just 3 hours. Jack may be a speed demon, but it doesn't beat the soccer moms with the flashing lights on their minivans possibly chasing Rick on the highway.

I had an Emilio with mushroom ravioli. Uh, it wasn't as good that it could have been. So note to self, not to order that again.

Shashi and I also watched Mulholland Drive at night. It was very creepy, made especially frightening by this one particular scene at Winkies. I actually covered my view for some parts of the movie. It was that disturbing.

Germs and Physics

If you are in or know someone who is in enrolled in PHYS 116 this semester, beware when receiving back your latest problem set. Some dude who sat in front of me on the bus not only had an awful cold where he coughed continiously, and also dredged up his phlegm several times, also used those papers as tissues. I was so grossed out, I almost threw up. I felt bad that he was in pain, but then he got red pen-happy and gleefully graded and passed more germs than 100s on those homeworks. That doesn't deserve much sympathy.

"Everyone has a price."

Last night I watched new episodes of Prison Break and 24.

Audrey Raines.....whhhhyyyyyyy?

Today I had a med school interview. So, my dad drove me. I got there super early, better than being super late. I was waiting in the lobby before I went to the Admissions office that the security guard pointed me to (I like people-watching and I had 1.5 hours to kill and didn't want the Admissions people to see how early I really was) when the lady came out of the office and asked if I was there for an interview. Of course, I was---what other well-dressed college-aged kids were there, looking all nervous----Anyway, she led to me the waiting room with other interviewee. Then we had the typical chit-chat. Some other kids came. Finally, my interviewer came to pick me up. A little old Indian man, I think. Or maybe he was from Burma, from the kinds of questions he asked me. For instance:

Q: What industry uses only English?


A: Apparently, the airline industry. Now, is that a general knowledge that I should know, or is it relevant to medicine in some way. If you know the reason, please enlighten me. Btw, I actually knew the answer to this because it was on some med school interview feedback website that someone recommended to me sometime.

Q: What's another name for Burma?
Q: What are the major Asian religions?
Q: What's the difference between Shi'a and Sunni Muslims?

Uh, okay, I didn't know about the Burma thing. I think I answered the other ones though. It was just strange, like he wanted to fill up his over-hour time slot with random questions. Ah, well. At least I got a free lunch.

Spring Break

The last day of classes was on Friday. After learning about cocaine and morphine in Chemical Ecology (and seeing the PHOENIX near Duffield Hall --- pink and neon orange --- hot!), I went back to the room and watched an episode of Lost and did some last minute preparations/packing. I was planning to getting the bus at 2:25pm. I was out the door at 2:15pm. Many people were already at the bus stop, including the Sperry Crew, now the 6th Floor Casca crew. Anyway, I saw the Dragon on Neha's cell phone. It was red and white, yes, Cornell's colors. And some of them boyz were having a competition of who can get the most people to wave to them from afar, I think. Anyways, that passed the time, but then, two Shortline buses passed us. It was after 3pm until an empty bus finally got to our stop. The driver was a woman. She seemed like a new driver. She looked over the maps and had a set of written directions by her side. She also talked on the cell-phone through most of the trip. I sat in the front, as usual, where there's more leg room. Naftali, who lives with Erik, told me about his future goals to go into Ayurvedic medicine and going to the Bahamas to find an iguana and hitch-hiking in different countries. Gosh, I wish I were a plant biologist sometimes. Travel.

Speaking of travel, apparently, I won a $3000 grant from the Asian Studies department to go to India to continue my language studies. I sure hope I get to go on this trip; I just don't know where to begin. I guess I will ask Streematidi. Maybe also Rima.... But, if anyone has any connections or know of people in Kolkata who would be willing to teach me Bengali, let me know!

What else? Oh, I got into Port Authority right on schedule. It was sort of disappointing since we were an Express bus and that would get us into the city an hour earlier. But, the driver drove very slowly (but carefully) and also missed the one Ridgewood stop. So we had to drive along until we found a place where we can u-turn off the highway. And she didn't know where the stop was, so a kid from Mahwah came up to the front and told her where to go. He was doing a good job, and it was admirable that he would come up and help, but then he did a classless kind of thing. People from the bus said, "Tim! You should be a bus driver." Tim, then said, "Yeah, sure, I go to Cornell to become a bus driver." And our poor driver was in plain earshot of that remark. It's so stupid how some people feel all superior to others; it makes me sick. Ugh.

Anyway, I got home to find that my sister had baked me a banana-bread cake and some cinnammon break because I got into medical school. So, of course, we took massive amounts of picture of me lighting the cake candles, blowing out the candles, cutting the cake, clapping for the cut cake, and being fed cake.

Then, I watched another episode of Lost and went to sleep.

I woke up, and read nearly half of the memoir I was supposed to read, "If I Die in a Combat Zone" by Tim O'Brien. I also watched a bit of the Chinese movie that I plan on writing a scene synopsis for, called "To Live." I had lots of food, oi, maybe too much.

TV

So yeah, I am addicted to two more television shows: "Lost" and "Prison Break."
I watch one episode of each show everyday for the past week. When I am away from my computer, I wish I were watching the shows. I want to know what happens.

Everyone has a past, a history. Who knows where we'll end up? We may end up in a deserted (?) island someday after a plane crash and all our experiences up to this one point may make a difference of whether we will survive or not?

Also, who are we to judge people? Cons have amazing skills, secret service turn out to care only for themselves. Dang.

Michael Scofield is just too smart; but too smart for his own good? I don't know, but I am glad that I can still see how it turns out.

:::sigh::::

Stuff

It's been awhile. We've done a lot.
Unbreakable: Bruce Willis can bench press! There's an evil counterpart to every superhero.
Yay for Becky whose "Edith Piaf Saves the Day" won the 2006 Heermans-McCalmon Playwrighting Contest!
Snatching many snacks to make my Indian flag fried rice.
Cornell Commitment Convocation; Shashi spoke and we were beaming as much as her parents; Open House before the speeches was cool; Sheila's poster was displayed as a prime example of undergraduate research; Good cheese and hummus; Mark Gearan, former director of the Peace Corp and deputy chief of staff of the Clinton administration, made me want to be civically engaged. At least I know the First Amendment freedoms (speech, religion, press, assembly, petition the government ---- Didn't I do a class poster on this in the 7th grade --- dear Ms. Collins!)
The Village: it wasn't as thrilling as watching it the first time; still wasn't scary.
Dinner at Hai Hong with Shashi's family; enjoyed the Eggplant with Shrimp in Black Bean Sauce; Fried Ice cream which the young(er) people enjoyed.
Women's Basketball Game where we got to be sign-bearers: "Rolling with My Homies"
Watching the supposedly best well-made horror film out of Japan recently, but ended up laughing and confused by the end.
MLK III will be the Convocation speaker.
I learned about North Korean gulags, my god, it is still happening now. How can this happen? What can we do to stop it? And WHAT is it with the short man syndrome where guys supposedly make up for their height by ruling cruel totalitarian regimes or take over half the world? Oh, and the seemingly robotic participants in the Mass Games. It was freaky, but beautiful. Thousands of people dance together as if they are all one person. A brilliant show of how Communism expects individuals to be cogs in a perfectly working machine.