Below are the 19 most recent journal entries recorded in wen10's LiveJournal:

Thursday, March 23rd, 2006
9:01 pm	I'm sorry, I know I haven't been updating... but that's kinda a good sign when you think about it. Means i've been pretty busy in school...which i have been! It's spring break now, which ends at the end of this week, i've still been practicing even though it's vacation but i've also been catching up on sleep... I try to not take too much coffee. The first day i tried to go totally without coffee i probably slept a total of 15 hours. That's not going to happen again for a long time... Anyways, i think i did pretty well for the midterms, and most of my lecturers are quite happy with my work so far. I've also been playing with some people, i met some koreans here who are pretty cool. They don't speak much English, so they can't really socialize with the americans. As a result they only smoke, drink, and play music all day... I've also ended up playing for one more ensemble outside of my designated classes...the teacher needed a drummer and came by my practice room and just asked me to sit in. I guess she liked what I did, she asked me to stay on for the rest of the semester... so at the end of the semester i'll be playing for two recitals. And doing all kinds of other exams/graded performances... I've also discovered the best tv series i've seen in a looong time. I don't think they'll ever show it back home but you can download it from amule, it's called PRISON BREAK! and girls, you will love wentworth miller, who plays michael scofield, the main character. I think i actually watched 10 episodes a day during midterm week...there was this one day i was so exhuasted and stressed out i just came back, watched Prison break and drank beer for the whole day. Thankfully i'd done all the legwork i needed to do for the exams, and i could afford to chill. I just realized I haven't taken pics of my drumset to show people back home, i don't have pics of the whole kit set up cause i haven't set up the whole kit in a long time cause i've been working on exercises that don't require the tom toms, thus i don't set them up so they don't distract me...but here goes... that's the kit from the top view, i didn't get the hi hats in the frame. the main kit is a yamaha maple custom absolute and the kick is an 18 inch bass drum. I've been wanting to get a bass drum of that size for a long time now. I don't think i can ever go back to playing bigger bass drums, not for jazz anyways. Here's the snare i'm practicing the most with now, it's a Pork Pie Black Brass Snare...for those of you acquaited with the ludwig mystique it's the modern equivalent of a Black beauty. It definitely is a beauty, it's taken me a while to tame this drum and learn how to tune it to get a good tone... cause it's just so powerful and the tuning range is really great...also it has a really nice ring but you've got to get it just right. That's a sabian artisan cault light ride...they're sabians answer to the zildjian constantinoples and in my opinion they're actually much better cymbals, just cause the quality control for zildjian is getting a bit iffy. Sabian can only make 5 of these cymbals a day, so they're pretty costly. I traded in some other cymbals i didn't really use to get this one, and i'm glad i did. i doubt i'm ever going to sell it. Also, I want all people who go to bars, or places that serve alcohol, to keep asking for Newcastle brown ale. I've discovered it here... at Ej Costello's which is the liquor store just opposite my apartment. My roommate Sarah Rose, is there all the time and they're really chummy with her. they don't even card her anymore. I need to get in with that crowd. Anyways, Newcastle is a brown ale imported from England, and it's by far my favourite beer ever! (and mind you, my roommates brought me to a place in Boston called Sunset, which has 112 beers on tap!) It goes down really easy, tastes great...even has a nice aftertaste. I really hope someone brings it into Singapore. It will be upsetting to have to go back to plain old Hoegarden. So the weather's finally getting warmer here...i actually went for a run today without having to put on a sweater...looks like things are looking up. The next half of the semester looks like it's going to be even more hectic and exciting, but that's what i'm here for... and after that i'll have a nice long well deserved holiday...and Sarah will be here! I hope things are going well for all you guys back home...enjoy your warmth! (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, February 16th, 2006
8:56 am	Braving the Blizzard To all the people who were wondering about the weather (i heard there were some reports in the news about the blizzard in boston), YES there was a blizzard, it was the most snow recorded in a single day in the history of Boston. Strangely enough it wasn't even that cold... I was supposed to bring my roommates and friends to chinatown for dimsum that day, but in the end we had to order chinese takeout and have it delivered. Kung Pao beancurd is just not as fun... I thought I'd show you guys some pics of the blizzard that my friend patrick took. We decided to brave the blizzard to get to the practice facilities, we ended up spending 6 hours straight practicing, and since then i've been in the practice rooms a lot just working on all the information being presented to me. So here's two pics of the snow, and then a pic of what the practice rooms look like. Kinda small, and no air con. But it works... that's my friend patrick, wading around in the snow And here's where i'm spending most of my time these days...if I had a bed and a kitchen here i'd probably never leave! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 6th, 2006
11:54 pm	speakers are in! So the icreature speakers i ordered came in...and they sound pretty awesome... very powerful and clear for such a small unit. as you can see, spongebob and patrick like them very much. Room's beginning to feel more like my room... (Comment on this)
Wednesday, February 1st, 2006
8:39 am	First update in a while So I haven't been working on this site for a while since school started, but that's cause things are getting really crazy! Not that I don't enjoy it, of course, but trying to keep on top of my work in a manner that I can be proud of is proving to be really time consuming! ;) Also i tested out of some elementary courses and then was silly enough to take a whole bunch of pretty heavy classes with the free credits all at once in the same semester... so i'm taking drum lab level 3, private instruction with a great guy called jon hazilla and polyrhythms 1 all in my first semester. People i've talked to have called me insane. But i found some time this morning...and thought I'd try to update you guys on what's going on. Cooking my own meals is going well, thanks to Gabriel's bologniase recipe i got 4 or 5 really good meals out of one session of cooking.... and the smell of a whole bottle of red wine evaporating is just tremendous! Since then i'm made myself salmon, ham and cheese sandwiches, steak, salads, sauteed mushrooms, to that's all good... I've been hanging out mostly with this other guy called Patrick. He's a friend of mine that I met here from Scotland who's here on scholarship too... he plays drums as a principal instrument but also plays bass and keyboards. HE rooms with a violinist called Ben and they have a huge kickass apartment... so I went over there with some beers (cause i'm the only one amongst us who can buy alcohol) and hung out... anyways girls back home, here's his pic, so if you like the way he looks just let me know! So everything here is going okay... I just pretty much miss Sarah a lot. She was such a sweetie, she took these nice pics over the chinese new year period and sent them over to me... this one is now on my desktop on my powerbook. So pretty right? Yes i think so too. She was the big winner at blackjack this year at my friend kim's house! which is awesome considering she only just learned to play that day. I miss you sweetie. Be good at home! ;) On another note...we had good weather for quite a while, and then it's snowing again now! arrgh...it's boots from here on.... Do check back on the blog k? I'll try to update when i can ;) (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 25th, 2006
8:02 am	Getting Along Yesterday I went down to school for all my interesting classes. It's strange how the planning of my timetable worked out, I'm having my private lesson, my drum lab and my ensemble class all in the same day. On tuesdays I've got classes from 9 to 5. I went down early to my private instruction room (class was at 9am). I wanted to make sure I knew where it was so I made my way down early and got there at 8.30... the room was locked and my teacher, Jon Hazilla was practicing inside. I sat outside for the full half hour just being amazed at what this guy was pulling off... I was definitely psyched to be studying with this guy. When class time came I knocked on the door and went in... he's the nicest guy! (considering how he plays, he probably has enough clout to be a complete asshole if he wants to be) We spent our first lesson doing some diagnostic playing and getting down a lesson plan for the semester. One thing I really wanted to get into while I was here was brush playing and this guy wrote the book on it! (seriously, he has a book -"mastering the art of brushes by Jon Hazilla"). We spent some time talking about guys like Tony Williams, Jeff Tain Watts, Bill Stewart, Jimmy Cobb...he actually got my to try to sing the ride cymbal patterns of some of these guys, I did okay for some. I'm really looking forward to having a whole semester with him. We're going to cover history, different approaches to ride cymbal technique (as in, how Elvin Jones approached it as opposed to tony williams as opposed to Bill Stewart), chart interpretation and he's going to get me well prepared for my ensemble audition at the end of the semester. He thought I should've gotten higher ratings than I already had be we agreed that the best thing to do was practice for the semester and test up. The other big thing that happened yesterday was that I tested out of Drum Lab 2... the school has four drum labs that are mandatory for all drummers (a lab is kinda like a masterclass where there's one teacher and a maximum of 6 students). I got placed into level 2 but Jon Hazilla told me I should sit through the class and talk to the teacher about possibly testing out cause he thought I could handle it. What unfortunately happened was that one of the guys in the class wanted to test out not because he knew all the material in the class but because he just wanted to get credit and graduate early or something (he wasn't a first semester student) and so he pissed the teacher off. The teacher asked right off the bat if any of us were thinking of testing out so I raised my hand and told him I was thinking about it but that I wanted to sit through the class first and see if I knew the material... it became a bit scary. The teacher essentially challenged all of us to play through a couple of standard forms while singing the melody to the tunes while closely scrutinizing us... Anyways at the end of the class he asked if I wanted to talk to him, so we went aside to talk. I made it clear to him that first off i meant no disrespect... and he apologized and said that he was just pissed off at some stuff that happened today (and i'm sure the other guy, who didn't test out, cause he didn't know the material) didn't make the situation better. Anyways he told me that he was okay with testing me out of the class and that he knew that anything that would be taught in that class that I didn't already know would be covered by my private instructor... So i'm done with the first two drum labs! Only two more to go! This means that the credits that are freed up by my not taking these classes can be used to study other courses in my coming semesters... basically i'm getting more out of the money being paid. So it was a pretty exciting day...Dad and I had a wonderful steak dinner yesterday. He flies off this morning and from here on I've got to fend for myself foodwise...I'm been searching online for a spaghetti bolognese recipe that seems easy enough to make. If any of you know where to get quick idiot proof pasta recipes, quick! let me know! (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 23rd, 2006
5:00 am	a few hours before school.... It's a few hours before my first day of school, i'm wide awake cause i crashed out early yesterday so I thought i'd let you guys in on what's been happening. I moved into the room proper yesterday, spent my first night here. My bed is extremely comfortable, and we bought a relatively cheap mattress! These americans have got it right with their approach to sleep... Finally got a cabinet in, Dad and I wheeled it over from the hardware store ourselves. the drawers fell out a few times along the way but all in all everything got here fine. It's sitting proudly in my room now, just waiting for me to put stuff in it. When i'm done organizing here it seems like I might still have a ton of floor space. Anyways, just so you can take a look... Dad and I went for dimsum again yesterday. i realized it was probably the last dimsum i was gonna have in a while since it's going to take a while to get close enough to people here to invite them out for meals with me... plus students just find it hard to afford to eat out. Dim Sum here is really amazing though... it's just bigger, better quality and all the most tasty because you're tired and cold. Check out these oysters! yeah! after that we went to walk the freedom trail, which is the trail that paul revere rode on his horse to warn his people that the British were coming to attack when America was fighting the british for their independence. It was pretty tiring, you should remember paul revere had a HORSE...but we saw some nice stuff along the way like the new State House... and it was pretty nice to walk through some shophouse alleys. There was one inpartucluar which was great because we were walking past all these Italian restaurants and the smell of the food was just all over the place. Later on we had a really nice dinner at a place i think called Mccormick and Schmick....then we headed on home. Dad walked me to my apartment cause we were carrying some stuff i bought for the place and then headed back... settling into the room for real was pretty easy since a lot of effort (and money, thanks dad!) was put into making it as homely and comfortable as practically possible... even the idea of doing laundry doesn't seem that bad. The only thing that kinda bugs me is the idea of having to cook all my own meals...but i guess i'll find my way around that. Spam FIrst day starts today...will update again when I get a better feel of what's going on. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, January 20th, 2006
6:45 pm	New Toy To all those who are interested drum/gear wise...look at my new toy! I picked it up second hand for 250 bucks and it sounds awesome...i've NEVER owned a snare that sounded anything close to as good as this. It's a slingerland vintage drum from the 70's...i bought it off from Kevin, a friend I made at A's drums. Basically it's a great snare, he just has too many on his hands. (the bugger :) if you're wondering why i'm saying bugger, it's cause Mom doesn't like me saying BASTARD. So i won't say it here, online, in front of the world, for the whole world to see. Yes, she does read this blog) It's a wonderful steel snare, great for bebop stuff and for a steel snare it's definitely not too harsh as many steel snares can be. this is the first one i've seen where i don't feel i need to put any muffling on it. Ok, enough drum porn stuff for the folks at home :) (2 Comments |Comment on this)
3:49 pm	Trying to find my way Here's the workstation i'm working with at the apartment...pretty cool aye? it's a powerbook fully equipped with wireless keyboard and mouse, which just makes things much more convenient when i'm working at home (wow, i'm calling it home already). Last thing I need to get is a printer and one of those multi firewire jack things...the adaptor that gives you more firewire jacks. Anyways, yesterday I didn't have that much stuff to do. I had to do an English placement test, which was just some reading comprehension MCQ stuff. In the midst of all these Americans doing MCQ I could feel everything to Singapore system ingrained in me... use the process of elimination, don't spend too much time on a question, if you don't know guess, there's still a 25% chance. The test was pretty easy, for some reason I found it to be very important to me to ace this test. Maybe it's because ever since i've gotten here i've met a bunch of people who were surprised that i could speak proper english. You can imagine how irritating it can get. After that I tried to get orientated and to really get to know my environment. So first off I went to the nearest chinese food place near school, it's called Nan Ling. It has these horrible pandan coloured benches but the food is pretty affordable and the portions are huge. I had a boneless pork rib set with fried rice...which just turned out to be char siew rice. It was quite a nice feeling to be eating char siew that was quite well done in a cheesy take out place called Nan Ling. I must remember to take photos of the place. I tried to talk to the cashier woman in mandarin and she was like "HUHH??" I also had to get my last hepatitis jab yesterday so I called up Fenway Community Health center and it turned out that they were administering immunizations for students for free on that very day! anyways i got that done, and now i don't need to get any more immunizations for the whole time i'm in school...whoppee! I've basically finished all the administrative stuff i've had to do and now my time is totally my own until class starts... After that I went down to the 150 mass ave building to try to find my drum locker. the school has lockers for rent for drummers to store their kits so that they can get their kits in and out of the practice rooms easily. The problem is the school really doesn't have a systematic approach to numbering their lockers so what you have to do is wander around until you find your locker, then retrace your steps so you know how to get there. I couldn't find mine so i interrupted a senior who was in the middle of his practice session to try to get some help. This guy's name is David Rivera and he's from Puerto Rico. I was pretty blown away when i saw him practicing. he had an amazing latin feel and some SICK hand chops... we got to talking and he reassured me about my ratings that I did really good for a first semester student. Anyways, he helped me find my locker and then we realized that the lockers were really far away from where the practice rooms were. This guy was so nice, he actually went out of his way to find a locker that hadn't been occupied yet, and then explained to me the process of getting my locker changed from one to another. So now i have a drum locker that's right next to the practice rooms and i can look forward to getting some serious practicing done when school starts. We got to talking and he was telling me how he goes about setting up his schedule so that he gets the maximum practice time out of his schedule while still managing to do well in the rest of his classes. He told me Berklee was seperated into two camps, the people who are really there trying to do something worthwhile and the people who just wanna party. And if you're really there to work and improve it's really hard to find time to party or to do antyhing else besides your schoolwork. It's nice to know that there are people in the school who have a real hardcore approach towards learning and educating themselves... my suspicion is that it's the ones who are here on scholarship, taken loans to study and who have uprooted themselves to come here that take it really seriously and end up making a commitment to learning and improving. I guess with time it's easier to figure out who's who and who are the right people to be hanging out with. I guess since i've gotten here i've felt really alone in trying to be really into the learning experience. I can't count the numbers of pairs of leather pants i've seen, the number of times i've heard people say "yeah, i'm a rock guitarist..i'm not really interested in learning any of the jazz stuff" and the number of times i've heard people about trying to get fake id's to get into the clubs here. It was just really nice to have a conversation with a person who was really into the actual work and from what he says there are more people like him around, you just have to look for them. I had a pretty good day. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, January 19th, 2006
5:38 pm	Auditions So, on the 18th of January, I had my busiest day in Boston so far. the morning started with me running down to school to get my international check in done, then I had to go to another building to get my ID printed. From there, I went down to the main office to pick up my powerbook/oxygen keyboard package... It was a good thing i started my whole process early so I was able to get my stuff pretty quick. I went back to my apartment to drop off all the stuff then went back to school to do my placement audition. So i got there at 10.45am thinking that my audition would be at 11am on the dot (as printed on the card). I guess it's a good thing that there was a huge backlog of drummers there already waiting so I had more time to prepare. I finally met this guy I'd been corresponding with over the Internet before coming here to Berklee, he's a guy from Scotland who also got a scholarship to come here I think. I also spent a lot of time while waiting for my audition hanging out with a drummer friend i made called Harrison... He's from the South, a polite southern boy. We all think he's going to lose the politeness fast here in the city. Anyways, i got into the audition room. One of the teachers there was Ralph Peterson, jazz extraordinaire who's played for the likes of wynton marsalis. I executed my prepared piece pretty well and then we played some different styles and did some sight reading. The teachers told me I did pretty well for the audition all round, then proceeded to give me a rating of 3 (upon 8). So i thought after that that i was TOTAL crap, but from asking around I've heard that most people just get 1 and for a first semester student a rating of 3 is fine. The cool thing is i can re-audition at the end of the semester (or at the halfway mark) to get a better ensemble ratings so i can enter the better ensembles and get to work with the better musicians... the next time i audition I'll actually get to play with a band instead of just playing by myself so most people do much better in their second audition that their first, from what i hear anyways. I'm trying to take it positively and to realize I'm here to learn and to soak up as much information as I possibly can... I guess I'm so used to standing out back home that it's always going to be a bit of a letdown to realize that here i'm at best slightly better than the average guy. I was mentally prepared for it but it's still hard to take. It's good though, that means that there's probably a lot I can get out of this school while I'm here. I also tested out of beginning piano for drummers, so what they're doing with my free credit is they're putting be in a beginner's mallets class (vibraphone, xylophone, marimba). I'm really looking forward to that, learning a new instrument from scratch with proper instruction. It's also useful for music composition purposes and learning to play a harmonic instrument (when grades are on the line, and it counts to my GPA) will solidify the stuff i'm learning in harmony and ear training. Speaking of which, I also did my harmony and ear training tests today... i think i could do like half of the exam. I have a feeling i might test out of the first level of harmony or something, i'm not sure. I came here mentally ready to have to do all that stuff from scratch...that was actually one of the reasons I chose to come to Berklee instead of say, Drummer's Collective. So anyways, that was my extremely exhausting day yesterday...I came back, brushed my teeth took out my contact lenses and crashed out on the bed. I also drank quite a bit of pretty strong wine at dinner, I just needed to take a load off and chill out after everything... today's going to be a bit less busy I just need to go take an exam that proves i understand enough English to understand my lecturers and go for a one hour class on how my laptop is useable with the berklee school network. Then i'm going to go down to check out the drum practice rooms, my lockers, the supermarkets around here and get all own "orientation" of my surroundings done. So pray with me that my first ensemble class doesn't suck too bad... Let's see what I can get out of it (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 18th, 2006
7:59 pm	Orientation... Went down to orientation yesterday, but i'd want to reserve my comments about the school and about the students of the intake till later so that i'll know what i'm talking about. strangely enough i'm really looking forward to taking some of the non-music humanities subjects that make up your degree...college writing, art history, and you get 11 credits to kinda mess around with and just take weird subjects that you want to. My placement audition is today... it's an audition where you perform in front of the lecturers and then they use that as a gauge to place you in classes that are suitable for you... basically i've got to ace this test if not i'm going to not be able to do a lot of the the things i want to do in this school. So anyone who's reading now, my audition is at 12midnight singapore time. It'd be great if you said a prayer for me or something WEn (Comment on this)
Tuesday, January 17th, 2006
10:38 am	The Room is up! Ok, so, here's a game for you guys... you know those spot the difference games they have in arcades? like the ones where you get two pictures that look the same but have small differences? yeah so i made one for you guys...see how many differences you can find. actually, that's not all the stuff i had to put on cause of the cold today...minus 8 degrees is not funny. Here i am, all decked out in my winter gear and still freezing my buns off Dad and I got in today and set up the table. It was a pretty complicated process with lots of parts. Whoever who said that this could be done by a single person should be shot, there's no way any one person can get the leverage to hold some of the parts in position whilst screwing them in. anyways...Dad INSISTED on chronicleing the construction process of the table but i won't really bore you with all the pics. Just one or two Here's dad and me fixing up the table and here's the whole thing when it's finished, pretty good design no? already i have some storage space spongebob and patrick are happy in my room right now. i'll be joining them soon... Later on got the bedsheets into the bed and ran out to buy some lamps to light the room. the whole room is pretty much completed, last thing i need to get is a cabinet and i'll be set! will be moving in when all my internet/phone connections are set up. here's the room as it is now... wish me luck at making my own meals (every meal), washing my own laundry and living with total strangers. I'm gonna need it soon. (3 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, January 16th, 2006
11:51 pm	temperature temperature outside right now is about 18 degrees...quite nice right? ;) farenheit. (1 Comment |Comment on this)
11:04 am	COLD It started snowing today...temperature hit below zero degrees. There were some points when Dad and I were walking around today trying to get stuff done that being out in the open was actually painful. Everytime i walked into a store the salesperson couldn't understand me at first cause I couldn't talk properly because my face was too numb to move properly. It was pretty though... here's some pictures that i took. Anyways, so I tried to set up the table today but turns out i needed a screwdriver. I was under the impression that the table would have a self-contained, self-sufficient system for assembly. And there wasn't a single screwdriver in the apartment...guess I'll have to put it off till tomorrow. I got the office chair done though. I also ran into my roommate, Sarah, for the first time. (not to be confused with my favourite person, Sarah Lin. this is Sarah Rose Faulker) We talked for a bit but i think she and her boyfriend had somewhere to go so we didn't really get to hang out or chat a lot... she's really tall though. First time in a long time i've felt like a shrimp. Ran across something pretty interesting. Check out the spices that (i assume) this girl uses! too bad she's vegan. Or else i would've actually been looking forward to tasting her cooking...heh Anyways. So right i have the following items for my room - bed, unassembled table, chair, bedsheet/comforter set, pillows, foot warmers. Just a few more things and i should be up and running. Oh and i have to go figure out the wireless internet thing... Should be ready to move in soon. (4 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 15th, 2006
7:44 pm	BED IS IN! Ok finally yesterday we went down to "Sleep a Rama" down at Mass Ave and we got a bed for the room... we also got a really nice computer/work table and office chair for the room from True/Economy Hardware. I had to sit out in the carpark behind the apartment waiting for the delivery guys to come cause i don't have a mobile phone line they can call yet when they're here...and the apartment is set up such that you need to unlock the main door to the building and then the door to my room. Anyways, Dad and I sat ourside eating takeout pizza from the place opposite my apartment (which i imagine i'm going to be eating a lot). So after all the stuff came, I had to clean up the room before I moved the stuff in. The guy who was there before seems like he hadn't cleaned the room in years. There were literally balls of lint on the floor... anyways the brooms and mops were in really bad shape I tried sweeping the floor but it seemed to make the situation worse so I had to take a rag to the whole room. Dad i think was quietly amused that I was on all fours and getting my shoulder into the cleaning. Finally after about an hour and a half things the room seemed like it was in a suitable condition to move the stuff in. So anyways, the bed is IN. it's got no sheets or pillows or anything yet, but at least it's in there. The table hasn't been set up yet. Today we're going down to Chinatown to look around/eat and then we might go back to the quincy market area...there's apparently a good place to go to get bedsheets and blankets and stuff. I think one of my roommates gets in today, probably am gonna try to meet up with him. That's it for this update... things should be getting more interesting with the room now that the basic stuff is in. (5 Comments |Comment on this)
7:34 pm	BED IS IN! Ok finally yesterday we went down to "Sleep a Rama" down at Mass Ave and we got a bed for the room... we also got a really nice computer/work table and office chair for the room from True/Economy Hardware. I had to sit out in the carpark behind the apartment waiting for the delivery guys to come cause i don't have a mobile phone line they can call yet when they're here...and the apartment is set up such that you need to unlock the main door to the building and then the door to my room. Anyways, Dad and I sat ourside eating takeout pizza from the place opposite my apartment (which i imagine i'm going to be eating a lot). So after all the stuff came, I had to clean up the room before I moved the stuff in. The guy who was there before seems like he hadn't cleaned the room in years. There were literally balls of lint on the floor... anyways the brooms and mops were in really bad shape I tried sweeping the floor but it seemed to make the situation worse so I had to take a rag to the whole room. Dad i think was quietly amused that I was on all fours and getting my shoulder into the cleaning. Finally after about an hour and a half things the room seemed like it was in a suitable condition to move the stuff in. So anyways, the bed is IN. it's got no sheets or pillows or anything yet, but at least it's in there. The table hasn't been set up yet. Today we're going down to Chinatown to look around/eat and then we might go back to the quincy market area...there's apparently a good place to go to get bedsheets and blankets and stuff. I think one of my roommates gets in today, probably am gonna try to meet up with him. That's it for this update... things should be getting more interesting with the room now that the basic stuff is in. (Comment on this)
Saturday, January 14th, 2006
11:35 am	Clues About the Roommates SO today, after the run and breakfast, Dad and I set out to learn to use the T-subway. we took it all the way to Quincy market to find our nice bank teller from yesterday, Heather Groat to set up a Bank of America account. (yes, her name is Groat). It struck both herself and me as strange that we were both the same age and yet she had already graduated from university and i was only starting...guess it shows you how much time the poly+NS route really takes. We also saw a monument made to remember the victims of the Nazi Regime...it's a relatively new monument which was set up in 2003. Walking through the glass tunnel was a pretty emotional experience...there were many quotes from some of the survivors of the regime. One of them was something about how someone's sister managed to find a raspberry and she managed to keep it from the Nazis cause if they knew about it they'd confiscate it. She then gave it to a friend... and the quote said imagine a world where your only possession is a raspberry and you give it to a friend. It kinda made me think. It's really quite a beautiful monument, it's just that walking through it will invariably make you sad. And that's good. I think sometimes it's good to remember how horrible the evil times were, so we don't repeat them. I had a lunch made up of totally shellfish...clams and oysters. look at these babies! they seem to be getting bigger and bigger on me... I know i have an obsession with clams...they're just really so good. and there's nothing quite like em back in Singapore. Anyways, after that we stopped by a roadside market that was selling all kinds of foodstuff. It's pretty amazing to see mounds of fish just being on display on the roadside..especially a considerable number of salmon. Everything was pretty noisy but people were still friendly... Dad bought us some fruit which is a good thing. Did i mention? the fruit cup which is filled with cut up fruit DRENCHED IN SYRUP??? why in the world would anyone eat something like that for breakfast. I like my fruit left alone, thank you very much. Like i don't have enough unhealthiness in my shortening life. Anyways, later in the day Dad and i took a cab to move some of my stuff to the apartment. We also took measurements of the place so as to facilitate buying furniture..we didn't get much luck this time as we kept running into stores that sold extremely high end beds and matresses but a friend of mine recommended me a place on Mass Ave and i'm going to check that out tomorrow. Also am going to try to get my mobile phone line set up... Anyways, here's a few pics of the room, for all you curious people. I also thought i'd take some pics just to give you guys some clues about what my roommates are like...first off, the stock of non-easily-perishable goods... seems to be a nice mix of healthy/non healthy stuff... i'm guessing most of the healthy stuff belongs to Sarah (my roommate Sarah). I mean you kinda have to expect that from a girl who's pre-med and does modelling part time. I also saw a notice on the fridge listing good groups...1.complex carbs. 2.proteins. etc etc. Keep in mind, I haven't even met my roommates yet. They should be coming in soon, I hope. I think this one speaks for itself. It so turns out they're BOTH Irish. for all those people who know about St Patrick's day, you know what that means. Anyways, that's it for today. Hopefully we'll find a bed at a good, reasonable price tomorrow at the Mass Ave place. Once I get that in, i think everything else can fit in slowly. Thinking about all you guys at home, Wen (12 Comments |Comment on this)
12:48 am	Missing a Friend A friend of mine back home passed away today. I will miss you my friend. I'm sorry we only met so late in your life... don't wanna give names, but all of you who believe in a higher power please just pray for this guy's family. We'll down the beers again in heaven soon again my friend. preorder the 20 beers for us. Wish i was home to say goodbye. (Comment on this)
12:42 am	Running in the city Just went for my first run in Boston today, woke up early so thought i'd try to get in some exercise (first time i've run in like a month) before breakfast with Dad. Being an idiot, i thought wearing a pair of track pants and a long sleeve t shirt would be enough since i was running and keeping warm. WRONG! It was so cold i ended up having to sprint for most of the way just to keep warm, which lead to me having multiple stiches and stuff. And I got breathless pretty fast because the air was much thinner than I'm used to back home (yes yes and i'm terribly unfit these days). Of course even though i was suffering i couldn't afford to slow down and take it easy cause if i did i would freeze! ;) That being said, it's really wonderful weather for running, once i get the right amount of layers on i think it will be great. one of the things i hated about running in SIngapore was that afternoon heat always got to me, so i tried to run either early in the morning or at night...here i can pretty much do it anytime during the day if i have the discipline. which will be helpful, given the amazing amount of unhealthy food there is here. i tried to eat fruits this morning from a prepackaged fruit cup only to realize half of the fruits were drowned in syrup. Just thought you guys would know i'm trying to keep in some kinda shape. (yes you, sarah ;) ) (Comment on this)
Friday, January 13th, 2006
8:22 pm	FIRST POST Ok folks here goes, i figured setting up a blog would be the easiest way to let everyone know what's going on... this is the third day we've been here now and I'm sorry if it's taken so long for me to get in touch. Been busy running around, figuring out some important stuff and doing some fun stuff too. Anyways Dad and I got here fine, things got pretty eventful at Northwest and due to certain complications we missed our first connection to Boston... that kinda stuff. But we're here and safe now so all's good. We're living at the 140 Hotel which is at 140 Clarendon Street... The hotel is about a 15 minute walk away from my future apartment and from my school. Here's a picture of Dad in front of the hotel... The first evening here (we got in in the evening) was spent pretty much just walking around and orientating ourselves with the place, nothing special. Well we did have a kickass dinner at the Atlantic FIsh and Co (VERY VERY different from the Fish and Co back home, totally different company). BUt other than that we just were settlking in and trying to get over jetlag. I spent some time in the hotel watching Will and Grace back to back episodes. When we got up the next day the weather was really nice... chilly but not painfully cold and sunny. It was really a great day to walk around and see the city in dayling (which ends at about 4.30 pm given that it's winter now). I thought I'd do individual posts on different parts of the city later... so i'll wait till then to show you some of the photos of the park and parts of the city we went through. We got out and walked around a bit then went down to Quincy Market for lunch. Quincy Market has this place that sells raw clams, oysters and does Lobster Pots for pretty accessible prices. check these pics out... So as you can see, seafood here is Boston is pretty amazing. I had the biggest cherrystone clams in my life for much cheaper than we had them the day before at the Atlantic Fish and Co... after lunch we made some enquiries at the bank and got some stuff that Dad and I needed to buy. Later in the day we popped by the apartment to meet my landlord and pick up the keys...the apartment looks pretty nice. simple, but nice. I don't have any pictures of the interior right now but i'll get some today...the room is totally unfurnished so today Dad and I will be heading in to go and take measurements of the room so that I can start getting some furniture. Anyways, here I am standing in front of my apartment building, which is called the Fenmore. The building's in a great location for me as it's just opposite the main building for my school and is 5 minutes away from the other buildings from all the other buildings that make up the campus of the Berklee College of Music. Also, we hit a few of the drum stores that are opposite my apartment. Being in this stores is really a revelation for anyone who's gotten used to the standard or music stores in Singapore (read: no stock, no discounts, close to no service). To my friends who work in the music stores, i'm not talking about you specifically...but even you guys know how it can be. But check out these places! A's drums, which is in a little room in the middle of nowhere in a building above a pizzeria.. and Jack's Drums, which is right next to it... As you can see in both photos i'm just trying to take it all in. The selection here is tremendous but I'm going to do my best to not buy any instruments here first hand as there seems to be a great second hand market given that i'm in the states. Ebay and craligslist purchases are now much easier to ship and I should have access to a lot more things. I do miss everyone at home...but i'm trying to be positive about it. I'm in a really wonderful city and i'm getting to spend some quality time with Dad before school starts. I think things will get easier once school kicks in and my roommates get back, right now i'm still feeling a little out of place. But i guess that's to be expected. Okay that's it for now, today we're going to run around and try and do more things. I've still got to set up a bank account, a phone account, figure out the internet connection at my place, get a bed, get a table... it's all going to be pretty busy the next few days. We're going to see the Kenny Garrett quartet on Saturday (eat your heart out Chok) who's coming into Boston. Anyways, i'll keep all you guys updated, remember to let me know if you're reading so it doesn't seem like i'm talking to no one! Current Mood: giddy (6 Comments |Comment on this)