havent blogged in ages as usual but i think that's normal now. again, i blame school but since school is over for now, i'm back here again and i still dont want to go to bed, so i shall do a little update here.

fall semester is officially over! that means one more semester to go before graduation! hooray! ok not really. im excited and scared at the same time. i feel like i just got to berkeley and just got used to how to study there and then its time to move on again. i've officially decided to take a year off to really explore all the options i have and then decide on what to study and do a master/phd in. i know its definitely grad school in biology but as for what department, i have no idea. microbio? integrative bio? molecular and cell bio? physiology? there's too many options! and then there's the which school should i go to option. with the grades i have now,i dont think i have that many choices which also leads to the taking a year off issue so i could get more experience to make up for the grades. usually that sorta works. plus i still have the GRE's to take so gotta make sure i study hard for that too though i heard its not taken too seriously or that most departments dont care too much about that. most probably still berkeley though. why not continue to go to the best public uni in the world right? thats if they would still take me... i know my parents are thinking stanford or harvard one of those private school but i think i'll really just die. and i heard that stanford's grad program is just hostile. like the people dont help you with writing grants and stuff unlike at berkeley. i mean i've seen how the grad students are at cal since i work with them and i know how close all of them are which is nice. totally different from the undergraduate community too.

but i think i'll sweat more on that issue later. graduation is on may 16 (university graduation)/17 (MCB department). dont know if i want to go for both. definitely the MCB one though. and my relatives from hong kong are coming too. sighh so much pressure. i guess its also because im sorta the first to graduate from college, leading to all that high expectations stuff. i bet im gonna get all the so what are u going to do next question which im going to dread. lets just say more school for now.

next semester is going to be hard. but im glad i finally get my 3 day weekend. no school on fridays! hooray but i have long days otherwise. lab on mon and wed but the other good thing is that i dont have school at 8am anymore. that was torture. it wasnt that bad when i was at skyline but that was because i lived 5 mins away not an hour commute. big big difference. plus i'll be living on my own too with my bro so thats gonna be a change. good or bad, we'll have to see. i think i'll actually be more stressed out. i've avoided trying to think about it but i know i'll have to deal with it sooner or later not to mention my bro has been raking up trouble these few weeks.

so lets get on with a recap of this semester. overall a pretty good smooth riding one though i do have my usual complaints and rants as seen on facebook but i suppose thats normal too. beginning of the semester started out well. was on top of my classes, went to office hours and actually aced the first midterms but everything just got chaotic towards the end. professors started to get horrible and i stopped going to their office hours due to laziness. i even stopped doing museum work which i told anna i'll continue this winter break since i could work from home anyways. good thing or maybe a lil bad was that i had midterms almost every week which meant i hardly had any catching up time for other classes since i would only be focused on one class per week. pulled a record number of all nighters for sure. hopefully results would come out ok. i'm really hoping they did since my gpa seriously needs some boosting. plus i think i really studied hard and tried to understand stuff. like i said it was the semester where i finally learnt how to study. not that i didnt know how before but with the increased workload and difficulty i just needed something different to help me ace my classes. that meant going to office hours and studying more. lol. drank a record amount of coffee too. dont even want to know how much. bought whitening mouthwash to use just in case my teeth were gonna get stained from all the coffee i was drinking. mom wouldnt be too pleased. snail research was still the same if not more work. hopefully its gonna end this coming week once we get all our data in. then again, it would mean finding another lab job to do even though i dont know how much time i have next semester. met new people too which was nice. had our weekly friday lunch with christine so we tried out quite a few restaurants at berkeley. most were pretty good. would go back to most of them. yup, that pretty much summed up most the semester. nothing too interesting i think. just the regular hectic school life.
hoping next semester would be even better so i could leave berkeley with a bang!

so what will i be up to this winter break? disappointed i wont be going back to singapore this time. but parents are coming in about 4 days. since we're gonna be dealing with the new house and moving and all. cant wait to decorate my room!! dont know if i mentioned this but i really want to make it harry potter themed/ disney. they dont really match so i'm not completely dead set on making it all one theme. dont know how it will work out. and no i do not want it harry potter face themed. i wanted it more like having the castle picture (i have a puzzle thats gonna keep me occupied once i have room for it) and gryffindor/crest themed. oh geez i dont know. think it'll just end up purple/brown themed with pictures of harry potter and disney stuff lying around. all depends on how expensive everything is i guess. but im soo happy i'll finally be able to have friends come over again and just hang out without having to worry about stuff. parents are coming for about 2 weeks so we might travel somewhere close by too. dont really have a long holiday so wont be doing anything too exciting i suppose.

but i'll definitely be spending quite a while in singapore next year once i graduate. mom already got tickets for back to singapore on may 30/31 and back to sfo on august 10. so i'll be spending about 2 months if not more. might have to come back in july instead depending on the job i get. but definitely at least 2 months so im really excited about that. though at the same time, i wonder if i'll get bored. hopefully not. i'll be eating 5 meals a day exploring all the new places. hah. cant wait to play with my doggy too. havent seen him in a year and i miss him sooo much you cant imagine. he still has ticks too which mom cant seem to get rid off so im really worried. hopefully they dont irritate him too much and please go away soon. leave my doggy alone. find someone your own size.

alright, fingers getting tired and its midnight so i think i'll go to bed. update another time ie when i feel like it lol :)