Hey everyone!

Sorry for abandoning my blog. I'm going through a major transition in life now - going to college.
I mean, you'd think having a gap year would make me totally ready for this moment... but no. Not super duper ready laa.. I'm so nervous and excited for everything that comes. It's crazy! Overwhelming.

First of all, I must thank my amazing parents,  yiyi and uncle James for bringing me over here to Amherst after our holiday to New York. Yiyi and uncle James is so hospitable towards my family - not only by providing us lodging and leisure in Cali - but pretty much prepared me A LOT of essentials for me to bring over (no need to fuss over buying bed sheets, towels etc). So much family support omg.

And also, my roommate Jamie. This post is typed using the laptop she lent to me.
The laptop I wanted to get can only reach me by mid-September, so she very kindly saved me multiple trips to the computer labs. And she brought like so much food and a fan for the room. SUPER GRATEFUL omggg :))) She's a local here and like really friendly and great.

Umass is very welcoming to international students with apparently 180 students from over the world (I think? Correct me if the stats are wrong). They actually planned out tonnes of activities to familiarize ourselves with the school and also make friends easily. The diversity of international students is really great; I've met people from China, Japan, Korea, Ireland, Ecuador, Australia, Brazil, etc. Most of the student body is made of locals though - which really gives the uni an all-American feel.

I got to move-in one day earlier than the locals (on 29th August), so that made everything a little less chaotic lol. The environment here is very, very green and Umass puts a great emphasis on being sustainable campus. Being one of the best campus food in USA makes it very dangerous...... I really hope I don't go on the whole "Freshman 15" thingy omg. But it's amazing that most of the food we eat is local produce and herbs used are actually grown on campus lol.

The weather in New England is insanely bi-polar. Like, one minute it's heavy, strong winds with loud thunderstorms, then it goes all scorchingly sunny and HOT. Like, on the second day of orientation I had to shower thrice. I just felt too sticky from walking around and with the weather melting me.

The dorms? I live in a first-year residential hall so everyone here are freshmen. Unfortunately, my dorm is pretty quiet... I hope it doesn't stay this way. Maybe everyone's just new? I don't know lol. The double room is 15'3 x 11" and comes with an adjustable bed and a table desk shelf thing. My hall comes with a laundry room (USD2.50 per wash and USD1.65 per drying cycle sobsss so exp.), a common room, and a kitchen equipped with an oven, microwave and fridge. ( I left a pack of 4 dole peaches in the fridge yesterday and 2 were taken. Hmmm. )

There's so many things that happened over this weekend and it's just so super hard to begin! Ahhhh.

It's just been less than a week coming here and I feel like everything just overwhelms me. The culture, the people AND  the food, the price.....

Speaking of price, I was looking at a package deal from AT&T for getting a mobile phone and the price is around USD80 PER MONTH before tax for a basic plan which includes data (compulsory). Expensive die right???! I'm so not gonna pay that amount of money every month to have a phone. And the thing is that we need to be tied down to 2-years minimum. Anyways, many students here have "family phone plans" with each other so I hope I can find some people to join with..

Today, Jamie, Wendy & I joined the World's Largest Fruit Salad event. It was quite fun!
Quite cool to think that we were part of a Guinness World Record LOL  :) In the evening, head out with new friends from China and my Japanese friend to Amherst town for chinese food and bubble milk tea.
The bubble milk tea was awful for me though (maybe I just ordered the wrong flavor) but the chinese food actually tasted pretty yummy!! But I find that the American chinese food tend to be more greasy and salty lol. What I'm really, really craving right now is a good Nasi Lemak or Assam Laksa :( Sobs.

Yesterday, an adviser informed me that I could get almost two semester worth of credits for my Cambridge A-levels so I am really happy about it. Classes starts tomorrow but I just changed my schedule today. It's not my first option but I'm taking Computer Science to replace my economics class. Hopefully an opening for art classes would come and I could just have CS replaced la. My main classes would be Basic Japanese, Statistics, College Writing and Computer Science (to be changed, hopefully).

My major is in Isenberg but I won't be taking that many core classes till next semester, maybe.
Most of the classes now are Gen.Ed.

Anyways, I have to wake up tomorrow at 8am or earlier so I better sign off now.
First day of college classes!!!

Good night world. :)