5 things we did while in Europe

#1

Called room service in our hotel room at about 11pm, asking for a towel, but that wasn’t the real reason we called. When the person came up and handed us the towel, we thanked her and asked her for help in catching a huge spider menacing the bathroom.

Before that we’d stood just outside of the bathroom for more than an hour trying to catch it and failing miserably cause we’re frickin’ idiots before B came up with the brilliant idea of calling room service. Neither of us had taken a shower yet and didn’t want to with the spider flying about on the ceiling of the bathroom.

And the hotel staff who came to our room to deliver the towel, and subsequently caught the spider, didn’t speak a word of English.

Don’t judge us

#2
Got hopelessly lost in Paris.

Our tour guide brought the whole tour group to one of the city’s attractions and gave us about thirty minutes of free time and we all were supposed to meet back at the bus in the basement carpark at a fixed time.

B and I got lost on the way back (took the wrong exit, but at that time we thought it was right) and ran about like headless chickens trying to find our bus. Ended up with us calling our tour guide, and B was rattling off all the names of the buildings/signboards/street addresses around us to him and we waited for him to find us. Which he did, eventually.

Most embarrassing moment of the whole trip. Everyone else was back on the tour bus and we kept them all waiting for 20 minutes because we got lost and the guide had to come find us and bring us back. Really, really paiseh!!

#3
We spent about one hour boiling water in our hotel room to cook our cup noodles and turned out that Europe’s cup noodles are really quite awful (the ones that we bought from the nearby supermarket anyway) and all we had for dinner that night was a box of macaroons we’d bought earlier at the mall.

Note; we’re idiots but not that idiotic that we don’t know how to boil water – it only took us an hour because we were cleaning the kettle and the pot and the cutleries like fanatics because have you seen the state of a hotel room’s kettle and pot and stuff? Disgusting.

#4
At the Palace of Versailles, we tried to walk through the entrance to the garden thinking it was the exit out of the palace. Now getting into the garden requires a ticket since you have to pay to get in, and B and I were thinking why on earth are people showing the security guards standing there their tickets while exiting? Is that really necessary?

So like true-blue idiots the both of us walked up and showed our tickets (our entry tickets to get into the Palace of Versailles, and not the entry tickets to get into the garden) and the guy was like, ‘oh sorry this isn’t the right ticket’ to me. While the guard B handed her ticket to couldn’t speak English and just did a series of hand gestures. LMAO. Embarrassing. We walked away like retards.

#5
Spent two hours walking about in Lucerne and failed at getting dinner. Most of the menus weren’t in English and we had no idea what we were ordering. Also, there were only outdoor, open air cafes to eat at and we didn’t even know where we were supposed to order or if we were supposed to wait to be seated. We walked about aimlessly trying to decide which cafe to eat at, and finally just sat down at the tables of one.

By then it was kinda late, we only had about an hour left before we were supposed to meet up with the group so we decided we would get dinner at the hotel. So we sat at the cafe just to rest our legs cause we were tired, and 20 minutes later a waitress approached our table to take our order and we randomly ordered a desert to share.

Back at the hotel, the food was terrible and frickin’ expensive. 35 francs each for seriously overpriced bad quality shit.. and it took them ONE hour to serve us the food. And the thing was there weren’t even that many people eating at that time, so I have no idea why it took so long. Our tour guide says it’s pretty normal.. service is slow and steady in Europe, unlike in Singapore.

Like that time B and I walked to the supermarket in the evening and there was only one other person in front of us with THREE items and it the cashier more than 5 minutes to deal with her. B commented that if she worked at that pace at Carrefour back in Singapore, she would have been fired on the spot. Lmao. But I kinda like that everyone does things so slowly in Europe and no one shoots you death glares or anything when you take your time digging through your pocket to find change and hold up the entire line.

So, there… 5 retarded things the both of us did/experienced in Europe. Don’t judge us Hahaha. I don’t know why I always end up doing the most retarded and silly things when I’m with B.

Bonus #6
We had our own free leisure time in Belgium, Brussels, after dinner. While B and I were walking about, lost and trying to find a supermarket where we could buy food and mineral water, we realised we were being followed by this random guy… for more than five minutes. B noticed it first and was kinda freaked out. He’d walk alongside us and kept eyeing us up and down. Weird, but nothing happened and we ended up brisk-walking really really fast to lose him in the crowd.

(unintentional) selfharming.

I’ve been doing it since I was, what, eleven years old? So it’s been about eight years and I’m now suffering the consequences of it and I regret it so much now and I just pray it isn’t permanent. Ugh. That feeling when things start to look up but then everything feels like it’s going downhill again and life is shit once again.

I’m back.

About 24 hours since I landed in Singapore and I already miss Europe. Feeling sian. In less than a week I’ll be moving in to PGP again. Shockingly, my appeal was successful. Really not looking forward to staying in PGP once more

so…it’s finally happening.

I’ll be flying off to Europe tomorrow with B. The first time I’m such a long way from home without my parents. Hahaha. I am so not looking forward to the 12-hour flight… And right after that, we’ll have to transit and take another hour-long flight before we land in the morning.

I’m excited, sure, but not as excited as I thought I would be. Not because I don’t want to go, because I definitely definitely do, but because of an issue I’ve been dealing with for the last few weeks. Which I won’t be talking about on here.. yet?

Anyway. I recently just completed watching all 50 episodes of 古剑奇谭. I don’t usually watch wuxia fantasy shows, but this was actually kinda enjoyable. Awesome soundtrack too.

Also, module preference exercise tomorrow ~ I’m still kinda undecided as to which econs mods I want to take for the next sem. Well, I had planned beforehand of course… but, turns out that finals for two of the mods I wanted to take happen to be on the same day, within hours of each other. So… I have to reconsider now

NUS AY2014/2015 Sem 2 Module Reviews – EC2104, EC2101, EC2102, GEK1538, GEM2900

Overall, I did pretty badly for Semester 2. My CAP dropped from 4.5 in Sem 1 to 4.22 in Sem 2 😦 But, whatever. Will just work harder the next semester and try to pull my CAP up, I guess. I didn’t use any of my S/U options this semester, too. Was deliberating if I should use it on the B- I got, but decided not to in the end. Anyway.

EC2104: QUANTITATIVE METHODS FOR ECONOMIC ANALYSIS

Content
Very very easy… mostly differentiation and integration, and matrices.

Workload
Very light. Weekly one-hour tutorials, each tutorial worksheet can usually be completed in less than 30 minutes.

Exams
Midterms 30%, Finals 50%, Class participation

Midterms was in MCQ format, finals was MCQ+short answer.

Personal Experience

Probably the easiest economics module ever? If you found JC H2 Math easy, this module will be a breeze for you. It’s basically just lots of math. This is also the one module where I was most upset about my grade, because I deserved better. Had no trouble understanding any topic in this module, didn’t struggle with the examinations, found everything easy and doable. But ended up with an A- because I made so many careless mistakes in my midterm . I mean, I even lost one mark because I shaded the damn bubble wrongly even though I wrote down the correct answer -.-

But overall, really easy module. One of my favourite mods of the semester.

Grade
A-

EC2101: MICROECONOMIC ANALYSIS I

Content
Consumer theory, producer theory, SR and LR costs, perfect competition, monopoly, government intervention, price discrimination

Exams
Homework 15% (two graded assignments given)
Class Participation 10%
Midterm 25%
Finals 50%

Personal Experience

Well. I started out loving this module, but along the way in the middle of the semester I began hating this module. I don’t know why, I just found the other two Economics modules (EC2104 and EC2102) so much more fun and interesting, and 2101 in comparison was just freaking dull and boring and the lectures were near unbearable. I ended up zoning out during most of 2101’s lectures and having to re-watch the webcasts, waste of time really.

The sad thing was, I blanked out during the midterms and knew I was going to do super badly, so getting a 65 (or 64? I can’t remember) out of a 100 for the midterm wasn’t surprising to me. What was annoying was that I redid the entire exam paper in 10 minutes at home without looking at the given solutions (just scribbled working down on rough paper) and got every question correct. I was mentally kicking myself as I was checking my rough working against the uploaded exam solutions.

The lecturer is good, she gives very clear and detailed explanations. But anyway, I found this module really boring.

Grade
B

EC2102: MACROECONOMIC ANALYSIS I

Content
Consumer’s utility maximisation problem, Ricardian equivalence theorem, firm’s maximisation problem, competitive equilibrium, output demand & supply curve, FLM model, CIA model, New Keynesian model, credit market imperfections, basically just lots of models and graph-drawing. And maximisation problems.

Exams
Midterms 30%
Finals 50%
Class Participation 20%

Personal Experience
I LOVED this module. Okay, I started out hating this module, just like I started out loving EC2101. But then along the way my opinion changed and just as I started disliking 2101, I began loving 2102. Hahaha. Initially, I found the lectures really boring and I zoned out half the time, and I thought the lecturer was terrible at explaining new concepts.

But I grew to love this module before the middle of the semester. I thought it was pretty difficult to understand in the beginning, but that was only because I went for 2102 lectures with the mindset that it was going to be tough, because I’d heard many seniors say often enough about how difficult 2102 was compared to 2101.

The only sucky thing about this module is that there are no webcasts. Which sucks because the lecturer can sometimes tend to speak really really fast and I’m madly trying to copy down the 3 graphs she’s drawn while scribbling down what she’s saying, and sometimes I can’t help but miss out on the stuff she says.

I found EC2102’s lecture notes a little poor in standard too? Compared to EC2101, where you can just self-study off the lecture notes if you want to, EC2102’s lecture notes can seem like gibberish if you don’t read the textbook or attend the lecture. Plus, the lecturer doesn’t include any graphs in the lecture notes – she draws them all on the spot, and that took some time for me to get used to. Not having a picture perfect graph in my lecture notes, and instead trying my best to sketch three on the spot while squinting and trying to see what and where the heck she was labelling the graphs, AND having to listen to her explanation at the same time.

But overall, this module was awesome.

Grade
A

GEK1538: PLANTS AND SOCIETY

Content
Plants & Fungi, Vegetables & Fruits, Beverages (coffee, tea and chocolate), plants as flavouring agents, cereals as food, plant-derived perfumes, plant improvement, orchids, plant biotechnology, medicinal plants

Exams
Essay
2 assignment worksheets
Group poster design project + presentation
Finals
Tutorial attendance

Personal Experience
I may be completely biased saying this, but personally I thought this module was freaking boring and dull and boring and did I forget to mention, boring?!

There are a lot of scientific terms being used in this module, and all the binomial nomenclature was enough to drive me crazy.Like how spinach in New Zealand is called Tetragonia sp, while African spinach is called Amaranthus sp, and in the US it’s Spinacea sp. How rice isn’t called rice, but it’s called Oryza sativa L. Blah blah blah binomial nomenclature everywhere.

The content was all really dry and boring and sometimes difficult to understand, and it didn’t help that the lecturers were so boring, monotonous and seemingly terrible at explaining stuff too. Also, no webcasts for this boring module. The only reason I attended the lectures was because of my friend. I literally zoned out 95% of the time during lectures. The few times that I resurfaced to reality and paid attention to what the lecturer was saying, I had no idea what the heck he was talking about and zoned out again. 80% of people don’t show up for lectures anyway – that just goes to show how boring this whole module was. They only showed up during tutorials, when attendance was marked and graded.

Okay, the subsequent topics towards the end of the semester were a bit more interesting. But by then I’d already cemented my dislike for this module.

Also, be prepared to be asked retarded and stupid questions during the exams. Like, what was the name of the scientist who discovered this? Or the name of the scientist who invented the first method of decaffeination? Or the name of the scientist who discovered that? Wow really, I was so mad. I mean, I studied all the “difficult” parts but didn’t bother remembering the names of the scientists and whatnot, and during the exams so many of these retarded questions came out. You would think that they would set questions testing your understanding of a concept, instead of questions testing if you remember the name of the person who came up with the concept or the year in which he invented something. Who discovered this, who discovered that. Simple questions that I couldn’t answer because I didn’t bother remembering specifically who discovered what and who invented what -.-

So my advice for those taking the exam is don’t skip any parts of the lecture notes. Memorise everything no matter how trivial and seemingly unimportant the fact is. Even the year that whichever scientist discovered something. And don’t bother studying about the actual methods and processes, like methods of decaffeination, the fermentation process, plant biotechnology methods, blah blah blah because chances are you won’t even be tested on them during the exam and you’ll just end up wasting your time memorising all that shit.

Needless to say, this was my least favourite module of Semester 2. I don’t even want to use the word “favourite” in the same sentence as “GEK1538”.

Also, there were soooo many things going on in this module. Lab sessions with graded assignment worksheets, a long boring essay we had to write based on a guest speaker’s Gardens by the Bay presentation, a group project to create and design a poster, then the presentation of your group poster in the lecture theatre in front of the whole cohort, and finals.

Anyway, to anyone interested in taking this module, don’t let my biased opinion dissuade you. I clearly hated this module. But if you have a genuine interest in plants, then you probably won’t find this module as unbearable as I did and this module is for you. If you’re looking for a slack module, this module is definitely not for you.

tldr; THIS MODULE IS BORING AS HELL. I regretted taking it.

Grade
B+

GEM2900: UNDERSTANDING UNCERTAINTY & STATS THINKING

Content
Probability, P&C, random variables, normal distribution.

Exams
10 Pop Quizzes + 2 Graded Assignments 30%
Finals 70%

Each pop quiz is just one MCQ question, so 10 POP Quizzes = 10 MCQ questions. And they’re basically giveaway questions – the answers are all given in the lectures itself. Purpose of the pop quizzes are just to ensure that you pay attention during lectures/watch the webcasts.

Personal Experience
I LOVED THIS MODULE. It honestly felt like I was taking 4 modules instead of 5 during Semester 2, because this module was SO SLACK. There are no tutorials, just twice-weekly two-hour lectures. But, the lecturer usually ends each lecture within 1hr10minutes.

The content is SUPER SUPER easy to understand. Also, the lecturer was ***** amazing. I think he’s by far the best lecturer I’ve had so far in both semesters. Explains things very very clearly and he has a voice that makes you wanna listen to him and not zone out. Seriously, BEST lecturer ever.

Math was always my favourite subject since upper secondary school, but statistics (probability and p&c especially) have always been my least favourite and weakest math topics. Let’s just say that this module made me have a newfound appreciation for them.. and I now actually kinda love probability. P&C, not so much haha.

But, let me just say that THE BELL CURVE IS CRAZILY INSANELY STEEP. I scored full marks for all the pop quizzes (99% of the cohort did as well, because they’re that easy). And I scored full marks for both the graded assignments. So that’s 30% of my overall marks already secured.

Finals was 70%, and there were only about 5 marks worth of questions that I wasn’t sure how to do. Allowing careless mistakes made, I probably lost about 10marks at the most. And my final grade was a B-. Which I was kind of shocked by. I wasn’t expecting an A, because I knew the bell curve was gonna be a killer (the final exam was REALLY easy, most of the questions were just paraphrased from the lecture notes and we were all allowed to bring a 2-sided A4 help sheet into the exam venue). But a B-? I was like wtf?!

So I was kinda disappointed with that B-, because I found this module a breeze and really enjoyed it (easy content + awesome lecturer + no tutorials + super slack.

But I don’t regret taking this module at all. In fact, I’d recommend it to anyone if you’re looking for an easy and fun module. Especially if you’re about to graduate and have S/Us to waste and just want to take a module that’s easy to pass and doesn’t require studying or doing homework, take this 😉

Just don’t expect an A unless you score full marks for every component.. the bell curve for this mod is C.R.A.Z.Y.

Grade
B-