hi friends!

the past week or so has been a rather crappy break from the ho-hum slothhood of my post-exam break, as i've had to drag myself out of bed and to school by 9 for almost 4 out of 5 days! disgusting! what's worse is that all this trouble has been only for a stupid useless professional development course, which is aimed at teaching us how to be physicians with a heart. i kid you not. the friendly human resource managers at bizad plan to unlock the depths of our emotional intelligence with a series of lectures on socialisation and self-awareness, as well as a battery of abridged personality tests which are clearly no kick for a emode.com obsessor like myself. bizad sucks. the only good thing about it is the watermelon juice, and maybe the noodle store. they don't even have female toilets on every floor! what greater torture must i go through in my quest to contribute to the afflicted of our society???

incidentally, personality testing revealed that almost all of us are Type A, ie highly aggressive, domineering and competitive. what a surprise.

last night i accompanied mark and daniel and stephen for a jap ala carte buffet at hanabi, a quaint little restaurant located in a godforsaken part of kings arcade. it is connected to external toilets via a funny smelling lift, so i would recommend trying to void before, and not during your meal. anyway, smartly opting for ala carte did not stop me from stupidly helping mark finish a bit of his sashimi platter, which came in a gargantuan portion despite the fact that he had ordered "for 1 person" (we speculate that the chef might have diplopia and hence interpreted the order as "for 11 person" instead). this was a dumb move because the miserable little piece of tuna sashimi that i had has been upsetting my stomach ever since. i can also feel my face burning up and my eyes turning red, although this might be partly due to me dehydrating myself without drinking water and other hypochondriac tendencies. the conclusion is that there shall be no more sashimi for me for a while. for the rest of the week i shall subsist primarily on carbohydrates like bread and junk food; it shall require great physical and mental willpower, but i will get through with it.

in other news, i was pleasantly surprised when kristine told me that the NY girls i'd been helping vishal coach were ranked 3rd in the invits on saturday. i was preparing to lay low after an embarrassing defeat but it looks like there is hope yet. there is really quite a difference between premier schools and neighbourhood schools, not just in terms of talent but more importantly in motivation. you can teach kids to speak properly and to think logically, but you can't teach them to want to win. also, these girls are amazingly quick on the uptake and it is SUCH a joy to read a speech that is actually gramatically fluent and devoid of glaring rubbish like 'Talent are also subjective as it includes technical proficiency and x factor'. oh dear, i'm such an elitist that i should be condemned in the media and have my ivy league college and high school scorned by the public. hardeehar.

oh and lastly, i'll be leaving for my LA/vegas/san francisco trip next next week, and i'm so excited that i've been obsessing over online stores for the past few days, making list after list of all the things which i plan to buy in the states. i shall be the astute shopper, unfazed by the plethora of tourist traps out to part me from my money. in fact, i anticipate much more planning and packing in the days ahead =p the only bummer now is the fire in california, since the whole reason i chose the states over europe is because i wanted a (marginally) cooler climate to escape to. never mind, at least i might surprise myself yet with a tan that actually makes my skin a shade darker than the white/cream clothes that i dream of wearing.

and now to study for that pesky pdcp exam tomorrow. so long!