not ded. really.

like the title says, i'm not dead. just really really busy. I don't mind school all that much but grad school definitely has different expectations. I've seriously never worked this hard on assignments/school in my life (and i'm a slacker compared to some of my peers here :/ ) I've actually been writing on the blog but not posting since I haven't gotten around to editing and honestly, you don't want to read any of the crap i spew without at least one edit. lol. The things I say and think when I don't use my (occasionally useless) filter.....well, I think Ron summed it up nicely on fb a few weeks back "I love Charm, she is so sane and yet insane. She's the quiet girl who's having kinky sex..." hahaha....gawd, this cracks me up so much and has stuck with me since Van told me about it.....mostly because it's so true and is pretty astute coming from someone who only knows me moderately well. it kinda makes me wonder what other ppl think of me....hmmm. who knows. anyway, long story short:

not ded yet. will post once grad school takes a break from kicking my ass over the hols. I hate finals. fml.

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I went out into the crazy jungle that is the Lyon Arboretum in Manoa Valley on sat for my field mapping class. I knew there'd be mozzies so i came prepared.

Apparently, I wasn't prepared enough.

My left hand has 21 bites up to my wrist and the right is marginally better with about 12 and I think I got bitten 7 times over my right eyebrow......balls. They're itchy as heck and it looks like i've got some strange disease.

Also, I picked up a printer at a garage sale.....and it took me about half the day to get it working with my computer.....lol. special. 

In other news, despite being fed and watered regularly, I've been perpetually hungry in my room since Sunday. Why?? Erm...I picked up a couple of pandan leaves from some random pandan plant in the jungle mostly just cos I could/the aunty in me couldn't resist!...and I have a tendency to eat things off trees/plants whenever possible...um, yeah....Anyway, depending on how hungry i am, my room smells like pandan jelly or nasi lemak.....or a combination of pandan, peach and banana......don't ask...i don't even know....

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getting settled in

It's been about a week and a half since I got here. Slowly getting settled in but this grad school in Hawaii thing...... it doesn't look too bad :)

Found a place to stay. It's probably the most rent I've ever paid (because I'm super cheap and used to willingly live in sketchy/dinky little places) but for the price i'm paying, it's waaaay bigger and cheaper than prollly 90% of housing offered on craigslist in honolulu (and other places I've lived in). Plus, the landlord is nice and there aren't a lot of strict rules. I've got 7 housemates...which is a lot but definitely less than the 39 girls I lived with in my co-op so it's not too bad. Also, I managed to talk my landlord into giving me a discount in exchange for helping to "manage" the place because I'm apparently a "responsible" grad student. Hahahahaha.....the wonders of putting the word "graduate" in front of "student"....man, should have done that sooner....like years ago...at Cal... What's great about the deal is that I really only have to make sure the chores get done, make sure the trash goes out and complain to him if the other housemates get too noisy or dirty. Seriously?!? I'd do that anyway but if it means a Ben Franklin gets taken out of my rent, I'm not about to tell him that! lol. 

Classes started on Monday last week and I've only just sorted it out. Managed to get all the classes I wanted and it's not too bad a load for the first semester. Still have to deal with all the red tape bs which is driving me crazy and sorting through it is very trying but it doesn't seem to be all that bad now that I'm right in the middle of it. I do have to say that the student health center here is much better than Berkeley's (where I've never had a good experience because they charge too much and some of the doctors there are horrible).

Hawai'i is pretty darn amazing but it's definitely a lot more expensive than the mainland. Housing, food and even the bus costs more yet most places only pay about $7-9/hour. How do people live?? Gah! Gotta start looking for a job soon :/ Other than that, Hawai'i is very nice....the people are really friendly and super helpful. The scenery is great too - both the landscape and the people. lol. The only thing is the weather. It's been fairly nice and it is not as hot as I thought it would be due to the breeze but it keeps raining suddenly while the sun is shining and there are barely any clouds in the sky! Crazy!

So, school is on track (including getting the advisor I want), medical clearance should be taken care of by the end of this week, I'm not homeless, rent is miraculously cheap (even by mainland standards), I'm slowly making friends (I think) and chocolate covered macadamia nuts are on sale. Now, I only have to worry about studying - it's a lot harder than it looks (my sister makes it look so easy) and getting a rug big enough to cover the ugly stain on my floor. Apart from that, life is good :)

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Here I am Hawaii!

Just got to Hawaii today - cutting it close since school starts tomorrow. Not too happy that I'll have to deal with a whole bunch of admin bs on top of having to look for a place to live. What it basically comes down to is that I have a medical clearance hold on my registration that I didn't find out about until 2 days before arriving here. They want a record of my MMR vacination (which would be no problem if I actually had a copy) and a TB skin test. Problem is, the one I took in Berkeley isn't valid anymore and from past experience, this is gonna be a pain in the ass. I had a BCG shot as a child because that's how third world/developing countries roll. The BCG shot means I'll test positive on the Mantoux skin test (since I have the antibodies) and they will need to take an x-ray to show that I'm negative. So, not only is it going to take a while, it's gonna cost me because I don't have insurance yet.

It's a vicious cycle. I don't have the health clearance, I can't register for classes. I don't register for classes, I can't get my financial aid money. I can't get my financial aid, I can't pay for anything school related including health insurance through the school health care plan. Which brings me back to the fact that it's gonna cost me :( Boo. As if Hawaii isn't expensive enough.

On the bright side, just saw an awesome sunset over Waikiki from my hostel.

On the not so bright side, I'm in a hostel. Which means I need to look for housing but may not be able to do so without my financial aid money. Sigh. This really brings back memories of my time in Berkeley.

Will continue with the Cambodian posts soon!

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My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ week 2

The Bayon in Angkor Thom

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team plague

OMG....someone pls put me out of my misery right now. I don't usually like medication but what I wouldn't give for some right now.

So, fyi, this is a TMI warning.

So, various people have been succumbing to something I like to call team plague. Nobody knows what it is but one by one, we've all been getting it with diff levels of intensity. I've finally fallen victim to it and I think it could either be food poisoning or stomach flu. Either one is not much better than the other, really. Been feeling sick all last night and dinner finally made it's appearance this morning. Why can't food taste good coming back up as it does going down? Yurck. I hate throwing up :( What's worse is that I can't keep anything down and I have to constantly run to the bathroom, not knowing which end I'm going to put to use....if I don't end up using both. Liquid diet, here I come. I can't believe I was insisting on going out to the site this morning (mostly cos I was feeling possessive of my unit. lol).....what a disaster that would have been.

Hopefully this is food poisoning (since stomach flu supposedly lasts longer) and I'll be done with it in a day or two. otherwise, this is going to suck. ahhh, fml.

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cats and dogs

It was raining cats and dogs for more of sunday night and it was still raining heavily come monday morning. So, a rain day was declared and people were assigned various tasks - mostly catching up on paperwork, transcribing, cleaning and sorting artifacts, taking pictures of the ceramics, etc. A small group went out to unit 2 where they have the big wedding tent and could therefore work regardless of the weather. I'd say that it sucks to be them but I think I'd rather have gone and done some work than stay behind and do paperwork. Worse, my work was interrupted 2-3 time because someone unplugged me (i took out my computer batter and just plugged into the wall) and i had to reboot and redo things over again since autosave recovery can only do so much :(

it's only 8.30pm but i'm soooooooo sleepy! i've gotten used to the early starts (i even wake up automatically at 5 something am now) and the early nights but i just can't get rid of the panda look. bleh.

week 2 pics and post to come. hopefully the rest of week 3 goes better!

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My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ week 1

So you know how you spend like 3 hours trying to upload pictures on an entirely crappy connection then when that little bar is finally fully green it tells you that your upload failed? yeah. So the hundreds of pics I've taken are sitting on my computer until I get back to KL. On the upside, I downloaded picasa and put together a couple of collages because uploading everything one by one on blogger is killer.

Here's week one in Cambodia complete with PICTURES!!! Yay! It actually went through!!

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bleh. we got caught out in the rain today. not fun.

the internet keeps cutting out but it let me on facebook for a bit today. i'm trying to upload some pics there but it's now almost 3 hours since I started on that particular quest (no thanks to the spotty internet).

gonna give it a few more mins. hopefully the pics and this post goes through this time around.

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My Life in Ruins: Cambodia ~ the basics

Hello hello. Internet is pretty spotty so hopefully I can get this up. Oh yeah, facebook apparently doesn't work most times since the IP address switches between Vietnam and Cambodia or something like that. I dunno. Anyway, it's been a week and a half and so far, a really great experience. I recently got a message asking me what the heck I'm doing in Cambodia so until I can get photos up on facebook or up here, here are the basics.

Who:
Me.....and about 10-15 others. There's Mai from Seattle, Jenna from France, Dr. Stark from Hawaii, Shawn from Hawaii, Nick from Sarawak, Marie from the Philippines, Charlotte from Belgium/Vietnam, Noel from Singapore, Jim (Dr.s Stark's husband, also a prof at UH), Mei Mei (Dr. Stark's daughter) and about 4 Cambodian students from the Royal University of Fine Arts in Phnom Penh who are with us on a weekly rotating basis. We also have Rachna who's our APSARA liaison and a whole bunch of workmen who know Cambodian archaeology like the back of their hands. So, on site, I'd say there are about 25+ of us and about 15 of us off site. 

Where:
Cambodia, of course. But specifically, we work in the Angkor Wat enclosure and live at the Robert Christie Research Center in Siem Reap. It's a little far from Siem Reap's center but in a town this small, a little far means a 25 min walk or so. It does put us about a stone's throw away from the main entrance to the Angkor Archaeological Park though.

When:
From July 11th to August 10th.

What:
I'm in Cambodia to do field work. The project is part of the Greater Angkor Project (GAP) which is a collaboration between French, Australian and Cambodian researchers. The institutions involved are the University of Sydney, Ecole Francaise d'Extreme Orient (EFEO) and APSARA Autorite. USyd is the main coordinator which makes sense since GAP is mainly funded by the Australian government via the Australian Research Center. What this means is that they have a really nice research center and some very, very nice (and expensive) toys to play with. It's really a sweet set up.

The professor in charge of this month long dig is Professor Stark from the University of Hawaii, Manoa. She's been brought on to the project and this is supposed to be the 1st year of a 5 yr collaboration. If everything works out, she's the prof I'm hoping will take me on and be my adviser this Fall. I don't know how likely it'll be seeing as she already has two new Vietnamese students this yeah but I can always hope, yeah?

Anyway, briefly, our goal this field season is to look for Angkorian/Post-Angkorian deposits in hopes of answering questions related to settlement patterns and the habitation of Angkor Wat. That said, it means we're working directly IN the Angkor Wat enclosure. Totally awesome. Well, it's really hot and all that but how many people can actually say that they excavated in Angkor Wat? Every time I look up, I can see Angkor Wat. I eat lunch under a tree a few hundred meters behind Vishnu's butt in the west gopura and near by one of the libraries along the causeway leading up to the main wat.


 I guess that's it for the basics. I'll try to get more up if the internet doesn't crap out on me. And pics will come soon for the same reasons.

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My Life in Ruins: Cambodia

Day 1 in Cambodia!!

For some reason, facebook doesn't work at the research center. Hmm. Go figure.

Had to get up at 3.30am to catch my Air Asia flight at the ass crack of dawn. But the LLCT was pretty packed and I was surprised at how everything was open despite the early hour. Hmm. Touched down and had a bit of confusion at immigration (nobody on my flight had the visa forms, only customs) where I got rejected at the counter and was sent wandering until I saw ppl from my flight swarming this one dude for forms.

Anyway, I'm here and it's really, really hot and humid - worse than KL. Met most of the team and they seem pretty nice. Managed to explore Siem Reap a little and visit the market where I bought a hat for $2.50! Awesome. Even so, for a supposedly cheap destination, some things can be surprisingly expensive!

Work starts bright and early tomorrow. Bleh. But we get to put a unit in the Angkor Wat enclosure so that'll be pretty cool :) Still coughing but not so sick anymore. Things are looking better and better. Yay!

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Closing one chapter and starting a new one

wow. it's been a while. sigh, such a slacker.

let's see.....where did i leave off.....

urm, yeah. I basically spent the last two weekends of June in SF bumming with Van and the rest of the weekdays sorting out car issues. The week after her b'dae they had a "daddy issues"/welcome new (crazy) roommate party. It was fun - a total sausage fest and probably their best looking party to date. Seriously, there were very few mingers.....although, a couple of super cute guys walked in and pretty much walked back out due to the overdose of sausage. lol. I also unknowingly ended up in a weird triangle of like with this one dude and the new roommate. awkward. She likes him, he likes me, I think they're both meh. Em, you can totally have him. I'm actually glad I've left the country for a few months so I don't have to exchange awkward text msgs. Also, went to the flea market in Bernal Heights. Such a great way to spend a lazy Sunday.

Charl started her internship and William came by to visit during my last week. It honestly could have gone better. Having a friend come visit before relocating is kind of a dumb thing to do. Nevertheless, it all worked out without too much stress. I felt bad since I dragged him around all around the bay area to spend some time with my friends but what can I do when I want to hang out with ppl before I leave? He was a good sport about it but a little too quiet (my friends thought he was either super shy or super weird. lol.). Maybe it was a little too much to introduce him to SF during pride weekend. lol. Which brings me to another point. Pride. It was great and the gays were funny and the pink party was very very crowded. Bad part: we lost William. Seriously, shoulda put one of those kiddie harnesses on him :) I prolly should have had one too. lol. The hilarious part of the night was when Van bumped into her new co-workers; shattering their image of her as a good little asian girl and "outing" her because they thought I was her lesbian partner. haha. Then, on the way home from the pink party, a bunch of gays thought we were together too. lol. In hindsight, we did look pretty lesbian-ish and we have a pic from the next day to prove it. lolz. We were gonna see the backstreet boys perform but they took too long so we went to see the rice rockettes perform. It was an awesome drag show :)

So, that wraps up my SF experience. Totally gonna miss the SF bay area.

The flight to KL was one of the longest I've ever taken. San Jose to LA; LA to Taipei, Taipei KK, KK to KL. as comfortable as it was on business (thank you frequent flyer miles!), having that many layovers is killer. Was barley home 2-3 days when I got hit by some virus that's going around KL. the doc said it was the change of weather but still, I was and currently am super miserable. One week later, the meds are gone but no improvement apart from losing the fever. The second dr's visit and second round of stronger meds seem to be working but we'll see. I'm crossing my fingers because starting a month's worth of hard kuli labour in 2 days time while still sick is gonna suck so bad.

So, yeah. One week in KL and pretty much nothing to show for it. I barely had my fav foods (doc's advice - no oily, no spicy, no fried and no cold foods = no to 95% of Malaysian food ) but I did manage to meet up with some ppl and make it to Sara's engagement thingy today. Sigh, everything feels so rushed. Cambodia tomorrow! eeps!!

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why does it even surprise me....

So, I called Citibank to let them know I may be using my credit card outside the states and guess what? Apparently, they made the decision to cancel my card in Jan this year because I hadn't used it in 4 months. Really? WTF Citibank. I didn't even get any notification. Plus, I haven't used it in 4 months because they kept upping the APR on me without telling me. Bloody shady is what that is.

I wonder if they'll close my bank account too cos I haven't been using it since they are terrible in general and their customer service sucks for both bank accounts and credit cards...why no, I do not want to talk to you, Meh-tew, because you're obviously answering my call from a call center in India since you can't even pronounce your English name right and you keep telling me that the server is down for updates when I want to make any type of changes to my account.

The lady I spoke to today was like, if you want, I can transfer you and you can sign up for a new credit card. Are you kidding me? I was on the fence with Citibank but this is the last straw - never again Citibank, never again. They've lost all my business (I think I'll go close my account this week and just stick with Bank of America) and I will never recommend them to anyone. Absolutely horrible!

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#$#^$%*^@! this used car situation. I'm so pissed right now.

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you want to lecture me about being selfish? well, fuck you, you bloody hypocrite.

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