thoughts on hall and usp

Hall life has been life for the past week or so. Im settling in and learning to do things - even simple things like taking food at dinner (rice 1st, muslim food up ahead) and taking/returning cups and drinks. Been pretty much a solo-orientation week, which is lonely but I that suits me. There's company of course - fs supper w climbers yay, tea w some guy from my tut group last sem, dinner w slacker extraordinare jiahua when i discovered where to get my drink during dinner ahaha! Not participating in hall activities, so being in hall has mostly been... being in hall! lol. Notice a sudden existence of time to sit down with tuorials, so no more excuse for ely to be behind in readings! (Still got 4 weeks worth to catch up muahaha)

Contrary to what i seem to showcase, i get abit homesick sometimes. The idea of being "home" as a retreat away from "work" is more diminished here and I kinda wonder what and how everyone's doing back on the opposite end of SG.

Working on a paper for my USP writing mod now... it's kindof about home. This mod is really cool... And although i know that there's a mighty high likelihood of my CAP score being pulled/dragged/plunged down by my performance on this mod, it remains exciting and inspiring and absolutely cool nonetheless - in large part cos of Dr Ryan, who. is. amazing. , and the USP kids who. are. damn. smart.

At this point im awfully glad and grateful to be in the USP. Forgive the duh-ness, but my awareness was jolted when Dr Swan mentioned that he would be interviewing 12 candidates after class, and there's a guy in my writing mod who's not in USP but appealed to take the mod... Made me remember that i musn't take advantage of the fact that im in, and rmb the complications/process/work i put in (and up w) to get a spot here among the cream of the crop. All my USP mods have been insightful and i really feel like a learner in these classes. Admittedly coffee is much-required company in a couple of them, but they're not boring really... The concepts are quite intriguing (sp?). Hmm but in all my enjoyment, i guess the bottomline issue comes into the picture too and i realise i need to reconcile myself w the fact that the cap score - the dooming single number that blankets ur entire uni-life hardwork big and small - will fall even as the number of such fun mods i take increase. An exchange worth making? Boy do I hope so.