Around davis+school

So i have been in Davis for about a week. Been exploring the town and sad to say, you probably need just 2 days to cover the whole place. It's the 2nd day of school now and somehow the UC davis(UCD) system gives me the feeling that I'm in for a hard time. I'm known to be the last minute type of worker but the system here focuses on continuous learning with heavy weightage on CAs. Textbooks are ridiculously expensive. It costs like usd$133 for my textbook and usd$100 for a 2nd hand one. In Singapore usd$100 would probably be enough to cover the cost of all my textbooks for a year. The module is open book but I'm still trying to find a way out of this. I even contemplated air mailing textbooks from Singapore for a cost of S$105 for 5 kg.

Lectures here are very different from NUS engine. The lectures are held in small classes which could accommodate anything from hundred over to 50. My heat transfer class is conducted in a small classroom with less than 20 students enrolled. Yes...less than 20. This is probably like a tutorial session in NUS. NUS engine lectures typically have probably 300 students in a lecture hall. For all those who know me well, you'll probably be laughing right now. Yeah....no way I'll be able to sleep(if i attend) or even skip lectures with such a small class. And so far there's no real notes provided. The professors write what they teach on blackboards(yah it's blackboards not whiteboards. the ones you use chalk to write on). They don't seem to have a habit of using powerpoint presentations or computers. It somehow just reminds me the days when I was still in primary school when blackboards were still in use.

Anyway I have finally moved out of the studio and into my permanent room. It's the same level as Allen and Grace. No pictures of that. Another day perhaps. lazy to do that right now. haha. My level is rather quiet compared to where stella, hanyang and wenchun lives. Guess it's cause my level consists of a few graduate students. Haven got a chance to talk to them yet. Maybe things will liven up when I get to know them. Managed to meet up with the rest of the Singaporeans during the orientation and got their contacts and set up a yahoo group. But those staying in Pacifico forms the bulk of Singaporeans in Davis. There's Timothy who's always looking for a bike and finally got it, Hanyang who's always trying to buy alcohol and still trying, Stella who's always sleeping and probably is right now and me who's always finding stuff to do to kill time. There's also Allen and Grace, Marn Chi, and Wenchun staying in Pacifico. So that's 8 of us. Haha. Anyway below are pictures of what I had done the past few days.

Drew circle...just behind the hostel

Hehe....check out who's my Governor!!!!




Christmas decorations! Nice!

Amtrak station

Activities and recreation center of UCD

Looking at maps...a common sight haha

Grocery shopping. how familiar.....

Oh New Year's eve we went to a Mexican restaurant to sort of celebrate the new year. There's not much else to do really since it was still holidays and most students are not back yet. The town was pretty quiet.

What I had.....

What Grace had.... hmmm.......