finally got through the first week of school.

dunno if it's because i slept too much during the holidays and have not adjusted to the new timetable... i'm super tired everyday, even though i'd slept 7-8 hours.

Mon and Thur--8 hours of lectures, so Sunday and Wed must sleep early. And I realised I still get hungry very easily. =(

I went to co-op at 5 plus on Monday to buy the Clayden organic chem text, but it was OUT OF STOCK! Goodness... How was I to know people would swarm in and snatch those digustingly thick texts? Guess I'll have to waut till the end of the month, since Clementi bookstore doesn't sell this book. =(

And I bought the Natural Heritage book 1st edition from some one. Can you believe I make the same mistake again? I bought the wrong edition cos the lecturer said the second edition is very different, the first had lots of mistakes..blah blah..just like how I'd bought the wrong japanese studies coursepack last year. Grr... (and I'd also printed extra copy of lab manual..AGAIN!!!)

Anyway yesterday my lecture ended at 12, but there was astro trip to the NUS High Observatory so I stayed in the library until 6!!! Damn sian. And I'd only barely managed to read ONE chapter of organic chem! Aiyo... Had a quick dinner and rushed to yih... where very few people were waiting. It's kind of irritating, every time they ask you not to be later in the emails, we'll be leaving at 7 sharp...crap. Anyway I took a seat and started my long wait. Meanwhile people began to arrive, so naturally they chatted... I just couldn't join them. That's partly why I didn't stay on the committee. And I was secretly relieved yesterday, couldn't imagine how miserable I would have felt if I were to be stuck with them for one whole year. Not that they are bad people... just different frequency, I guess. My face must have been really black and sour as I stoned... but I didn't really care. I was too tired. Finally it was time to go and I saw Yunle. Finally...someone I can talk to. :P

I always thought an observatory was big with those grand domes. That's why I was really disappointed when I'd first visited the NUS High ob when I took the "understanding the universe" module last year. It is located on the top floor of their apartment, and it's really small (barely bigger than my room), and you have to be careful not to knock your head against the roof. Not exactly romantic huh? But it's pretty high tech, I suppose. It's computerised, so you can keep the telescope fixed to a star and it will track it as time passes.

I saw many stars yesterday. Was really happy :) That's what I love about astronomy. Looking at the sky and making out constellations and identifying stars. I could only recognise the Orion belt and my favourite shiny Venus. Then Yunying pointed out the winter circle (rigel, procyon, sirius, aldebaran, the gemini twin (pollux and castor) ). Didn;t see capella but saw betelgeuse. There were a whole lot of other stars which I couldn't identify...

Doesn't this sound more fun than spending a long time adjusting and focussing the telescope, only to see something blurry that looks like "white fungus" (i'm quoting the nus high people)? And it's so dim you have to look not directly at the object but around it so your peripheral vision can pick up the object, and sometimes you wonder if you're deluding yourself into thinking something is there? (By the way I'm talking about the Andromeda galaxy)