My travel buddies and I are flying to Phuket, Thailand tomorrow morning at 8 AM. We are staying at the Jinny Hostel near Patong Beach. On Friday, I plan to go parasailing! I'm so glad that my first parasailing experience is going to be in such a beautiful place! I also want to do some snorkeling off the beach and shop at the open markets during the day. Phuket has a reputation of great and exciting nightlife too, including Thai Boxing matches! Hannah even found a little shop where we can make pottery out of Thailand's unique white clay. On Saturday, we are going on a white water rafting trip and an elephant trek through the jungle!!! I'm soooooo excited :)
As for this past week, I've finally established a typically weekday schedule. I wake up at 4:50 and take a taxi to swim practice. I leave the pool at 7:30, and the bus gets to my 9 AM class right on time. When class ends at 11, I eat lunch in the canteen by the engineering building. Unfortunately, it is not one of the better canteens on campus, but it's the most convenient. After lunch, I head to the library for three hours of checking e-mail and studying and taking an occasional 30-minute power nap. Then, I go to my 2 o'clock class. When it lets out at 4, Caroline and I head to the weight room to lift, and then finally get back to the dorm around 5:30. The rest of the evening includes dinner and more studying and essay writing. It's quite busy during the week. Since our classes are only 2 weeks long, there is a lot of material presented every lecture, so it's vital to be constantly studying.
Swim practices in the morning have been wonderful. I'm glad that I am swimming in Singapore Nationals. It is giving me a goal to work toward, which helps me get up in the morning. I'm really excited for a week off when the meet is over though. We do not do much yardage because the pool is so hot. Usually we do about 4500 meters, but all of it is fast and for time. It's terribly tiring, but at least I'm not going to forget how to race :)
My typical lunch between classes is rice, some kind of meat (usually chicken), and some kind of vegetable (usually spinach or cabbage). Basically, I choose whichever has the less amount of grease on any given day. However, today I gave in and went too McDonald's for a double cheeseburger and french fries, yum! I ate there with a classmate who was 12 years old in China when he first ate McDonald's. He said the line was out the door, and he went to the bathroom multiple times just so he could wash his hands and use the hand dryer because he had never seen one before!
I eat dinner at one of the two canteens (dining halls) at my dorm. There is a Western food stall that serves a decent plate of spaghetti and mashed potatoes. They also have steak, but I haven't had any yet. At the "Asian Cuisine" stall, the pan fried thai chicken is phenomenal, but pretty spicy! I've also ordered a beef, rice, and egg dish from the Vietnamese stall. Sometimes I go for a cheese, egg, and potato prata, which is so good! Tonight I tried the minced chicken and rice from the Thai Muslim stall. Yes, there are certain stalls that serve food that is within Muslim dietary restrictions. In fact, every dining hall has a separate area for dishes and utensils from the Muslim food stalls so that they don't get confused with none kosher foods. It's pretty interesting. I once accidentally grabbed a fork from a Muslim food stall for my dinner that was not Muslim... and let's just say I pay a lot more attention now.
My favorite thing is that every dining hall has a fruit stall! You can buy slices of pineapple, mangos, apples, and bananas. They even sell cups of freshly cut watermelon for 80 cents, which is like 70 cents in the US! They also make fruit smoothies for only $1.50! My favorite smoothies are mango, peach, and banana. I plan to try passion fruit, star fruit, and kiwi too. They even make avocado and water chestnut milkshakes... I'm not to sure about those. Haha all I know is that a fruit smoothie after a long hot day is like heaven! Oh and the smoothies also have these things mixed in that they call "Pearls" which are little tapioca gummies. It's pretty tasty :)
An awesome Industrial Engineering system that the National University of Singapore (NUS) uses that Gt does not: the NUS library has a computer booking system! It's a little overwhelming at first, but after using it once, it is so easy! So the NUS library, like the GT library, has a big common area full of computers. At GT, if there are available computers, you just choose one, log in, and start using it. If all of the computers are in use, you wait in "the queue" until you see someone leave. Then, you go use their computer. However, at NUS, you have to go through the queue every time, even if there are computers open. At the end of the queue is a terminal that pulls up a map of the available computers when you type in your student ID. You click on a computer to use, and then proceed to that computer. This process is called "booking a computer". The computer you have booked has already recorded your username, all you have to do is type in your password to being use. Thus, someone cannot just walk up and use any computer, they have to book it first. Each computer is booked for one hour. At the end of one hour, if the queue is empty, then you have can keep booking the computer from your seat for another hour and then another hour (Yes, I've booked a computer for over three hours in a row when I've been writing my papers). However, if your hour is up and there is someone waiting in the queue, then they get your computer and you have to go to the end of the queue and rebook a computer for another hour.
This computer booking system is very controlled, organized, and efficient. The queue at NUS has been empty every time I've wanted to use a computer- a sign of good engineering! If this system was employed at Georgia Tech, no one would steal computers from someone in line. Half of the students don't even know that we have a waiting line for computers. I didn't figure it out until I was a sophomore, and then I felt guilty for all the times I unknowingly cut people in line for a computer. Also, the booking system limits the time a user can spend on the computer, preventing a terribly long wait times in the queue. Also, the one hour time limit will cause students to be very productive with their work while on the computer, and they would most likely avoid spending lots of time casually surfing the web or playing on facebook.
Maybe I can turn this into a mini design project for GT :)
Quote of the Day:
Little Swimmer Friend: Coach, we can't swim. There's lightening!
Coach: It's okay, it's in Malaysia.
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