A series of random pictures from snow week.

It has been snowing really badly this week so I've been cooped up in Hatfield unable to do much travelling. However, I've had a nice dinner, visited the library, and I've endured another bunch of crazy hall parties. Endured because I wasn't crazy enough to join them. The kinds of games they were playing were just too much for me. Lol. And of course, it only ended after they decided to go to the nearby bar when they ran out of alcohol.

3rd Feb - Tuesday

Mich, Jocelyn and Dom helping to prepare dinner at Jocelyn's place. I was hanging around taking pictures and generally being a nuisance.

Mich, Dom and Jocelyn. See how Dom has already started to eat without waiting for us. Unglam shot for you Dom! This meal was a very happy one because we finally had like rice to eat after weeks of potatoes and pasta.

6th Feb
Random Winter Wonderland @ UH shots.

I have no idea why the shots always turn out so grey, but they do. I tried white balancing but its still grey. I even tried flash but its daylight so using flash is more than a little unnecessary. Perhaps I should get a DSLR like Qianqi but I'm pretty happy with my Nikon point and shoot.

Maybe the shots are grey because its really that grey here, or maybe its because its actually snowing but you can't see it. The air is currently filled with millions of little snow flakes. Anyway, this is the College Lane campus, where I stay.

And this is the other campus where I study, the De Haviland campus, which I take a bus to every morning. Actually the campus is behind me, but I took this shot because I liked the snow.


A really pretty bush I could not resist taking a picture of.

Me and Shola, my friend in journalism features class. He's from Nigeria and we spent half an hour talking about life in Nigeria and the conditions there. I do believe he's like the first black person I've ever befriended, which is like damn cool man. Lol. The building behind me is where I have lessons.

And this guy here with me is Travis, from Minnesota, USA. I met him on the bus back from Luton Town over a week back, and I ran into him again today. He studies Precision Engineering, and he plays the acoustic guitar really well.

And now, this is why I say Telford Court is party central.

Look at my kitchen. See how much beer there is in the bottles, on the table surface, on the floors. The floor was really sticky too because somebody spilled Coke on it. He must have been drunk while trying to mix a drink. See the other flat's kitchen behind outside the window? My flatmates like to call their friends from there using the extension phone, and they come over and soon the kitchen looks like this. Every night.

And here's a closeup. Notice the cards are in two different colours. The grey ones are soaked in beer. Damn disgusting right. The whole kitchen reeked of beer but I had to wash my bowl so I quickly did the necessary and got out as fast as I could. Can you see the speakers and subwoofer perched on top of the freezer too. Freaking awesome noise levels man.

The beer guzzlers are currently at the bar now, but they will be back at 1am and they will make a hell of a din. As usual. Makes sleeping early pretty pointless after awhile.

People here are crazy, but you've gotta love them.

I had to admit that when I first moved into my current hall of residence, Telford Court, I wasn't very impressed. It wasn't very new, the surroundings weren't exactly awesome, and my room smelled of smoke because the previous occupant was obviously a chain smoker who smoked in his room. Not to mention the same bloody idiot who held my keys, forcing me to spend 2 days in emergency accomodation. But that's all bygones now.

In fact I didn't believe it when Qianqi told me that my hall was the liveliest one, because it looked so dead to me in the day. But my impression of this hall was about to change after I moved in. A week after I moved in, I realised why my hall had this reputation. The people here don't exactly sleep, or function at anytime considered normal. In the day, you don't see anyone, and you'd be forgiven for thinking that its a ghost town. But once it hits 9pm, windows open, music blasts, and everyone starts getting into party mood. The phones start ringing, people start making arrangements, and soon you see everyone dressing up and heading to the bars. It doesn't hurt that all the booze establishments are literally just a staircase and a short walk away.

As for people who don't go to the bars, they will sit at their windowsills with beer in hand and shout at any friends they see within earshot, whether they be downstairs or sitting in the windows of other flats. I find it weird that someone sitting in the kitchen of another flat can look right into my room, so I keep my windows closed. But to the rest of them, they seem to practice window-to-window communication, which is seriously crazy, especially when you realise how many windows there are and how many different conversations there are going on at once in the same space.

A few days back, I was cooking in the kitchen when one of my flatmates Lauren, who is training to be a midwife, came in. We chatted for a bit, then she asked me if I was going to play in the snow. I said no because I was cooking, but apparently there had been a facebook announcement 5 minutes ago inviting every Telford Court resident to go play in the snow. My first thought was "This freaking hall has a facebook site?" The second statement she made was more incredible though. "Oh, yesterday I had a snowfight with the others from 10 to 4". Yes, she meant 10pm to 4am. Like seriously, what the hell. I was damn freaking amazed because even hall people in NTU aren't this hardcore.

But that was nothing. Over the next few days, it became even more insane. I would be sleeping and at 2am I would be awoken by the sound of my flatdoor flying open, followed by my flatmates and 5 or 6 of their drunk friends coming in. And they would be going like "Where's Willy?" In case you're wondering that's what they call me. Then Fiona, who's another of my flatmates and really nice, will be like "Don't shout like that Willy's sleeping! He's got lectures tomorrow!" And the next thing I know is, one of the guys comes to my door and raps it really hard a few times, so hard that it literally feels like he's going to bash the door in, and he laughs after that. I was actually worried for a bit that they'd actually bash the door down and come in because the last thing I want to see after being rudely awakened is 6-7 drunk British guys looking for an Asian to have fun with. Fiona was like "Oh you shouldn't have done that", but the drunk guy, I've no idea who it was, just laughed it off and went into one of the rooms and blasted super loud music, the techno version of "No Air". I could hear every single freaking word through my door, which was pretty incredible considering the room it was coming from was on the other side of the flat, with a kitchen and wall in between.

And just yesterday, there was a party of sorts involving people wearing pink stockings, neon yellow tights and stripey bright coloured clothing running around in the bitter winter weather. On my way back from the convenience store with a beer, I ran into a group of them. They ran up and asked if I could take a picture for all of them, and of course I obliged. After taking two pictures for them, they were really happy. Some of them came up to me, and one of the girls went like "You're so nice!" Another one tried to joke, saying "You're not supposed to bring alcohol back to your hall." At least I think it was a joke, because everyone knows people in Telford Court drink more beer than water. The last one, a guy in pink stockings, came up to me, squeezed me in the ass, and said "Cheers". I can't really say I enjoyed that though. Walking back to my room, I saw another one of these stripey wonders slipping and falling in the snow, obviously drunk. It was a funny sight, not least because there were two girls upstairs trying their best not to laugh while talking to him from their window.

And today, at noon, when I was heading out for lunch, I saw a guy shouting to a girl in one of the windows. Pretty normal, except that he was flirting rather outrageously. He was going like "Hey girl I can see your boobies!" The girl was like "Like hell you see my boobies." After that, the conversation pretty much carried on in that vein, but I shall not print it here. It was crazy. You'd never see or hear something like that in Singapore.

The people who live here do try to accept me as part of the family, and its really a pleasure to talk to them and realise we connect as people, even though we are from extremely different backgrounds. And I really mean super different because I'm the only Asian in the block, possibly even the whole hall because I haven't seen a single Asian face since I've moved in. But sometimes, they still have jokes at my expense, although it is good natured. Like once, when I'd just finished cooking dinner, one of my flatmates, called Dom, was playing Pro Evolution soccer with 6 other friends, so they waved and said "Hi Willy", and invited me to go over for a chat. When I got in they started introducing themselves and offering handshakes, which was pretty nice.

It all went well till they asked me what I was studying. I hate that question, because it never ends well. But as honestly as I could, I told them I studied Mass Communications. Dom gave a funny look, and said "Sounds intelligent". Immediately, the whole room of guys roared with laughter. I laughed along too, but I couldn't shake off the feeling that it really wasn't very funny.

Other times though, they are unfallingly nice. I was in the kitchen again, because that's the common room and hence all communication kind of takes place there. One of the other guys in my flat, Dan, from Dallas, Texas came over and said hi. The nicest part of it all was, after talking, he told me that if I needed anything I shouldn't hesitate to knock on his door and ask since we shared a wall. It was very nice of him, considering 5 minutes before I had no idea he existed other than the fact that he lived in Room 2 and I, in 3.

Telford Court never sleeps before daybreak, and never wakes up before sunset. Its really not the place to stay in if you want to do any serious studying. But I love it here anyway.

Fun in the snow.

If you're Singaporean, chances are you've never seen real snow in your life. Snow City doesn't count. So here is a little guide on how to enjoy snow, since I've currently got so much of it. The main thing about snow is, its nice but make sure you've got boots on, or else when you walk on it you'll constantly feel like you're going to slip. Its water after all, and because its snow your feet will sink into it till your ankles, or if you're unlucky, your knee. That sucks like shit because your jeans get wet, and once those are wet, you get cold very, very fast.

But anyway, snow is still great fun. There is just something about making a snowball and throwing it at anything that moves, including other people's cars. If you really want to be an asshole, throw it at the windscreen and watch them unload some colourful language. In fact, it gets even funnier because when they wind down the window to do it, snow gets into their car.

Winter Wonderland @ UH campus. Current temperature is -1.

Some angmohs having a ball of a time playing soccer in the snow.

The snowball. Everyone's favourite winter weapon. Locked and loaded. The more you pack it, the further it flies when you throw it, and the harder it is when it hits.

Me and Mich about to pelt our photographer Jocelyn with our snowballs. If you don't want to get pelted by snowballs, offer to help take pictures. You get immunity as long as the camera doesn't leave your hands.

Love the snow-covered trees and pavements.

Me making a snow angel in the snow. Can you see the wings?

Xin Ling, Mich, Joce and me building a snowman.

Say Hi to Fatty the Snowman. Isn't he adorable.

The one place you must know if you are a UH student. ASDA. ASDA will feed you, clothe you, and its always there for you. Why am I talking about it like its very important? Because it is.
Buy a whole chicken for 3 pounds and it's lunch for 4 people. And you get 2 litres of water for 13 pence. You can buy a whole week's worth of groceries for under 15 pounds. ASDA IS THE MAN. And its open 24 hours everyday too, except on Sundays.

ASDA IS THE MAN! Have you ASDA-ed today? Ok I should stop.

Check out the trolleys. There was so much snow there was a blanket of it above all the trolleys.

By the time we left ASDA it was night. Here's a random scenery shot. I love evergreen trees on winter nights. They all look like Christmas trees.

MEGA SNOWBALL. I found this on the floor. I think it used to be a snowman.

Here's an odd shaped snowball I called Onix because the shape reminds me of the head of Onix the Pokemon.

Guess where Onix ended up.

The angmohs outside my flat preparing to battle it out for who is the rowdiest snow warrior around. They actually have a facebook site for this hall, and 5 minutes back there was an invitation for everyone to come down and slug it out. If I wasn't so tired I would have gone down and fought for Asian pride. Although that's suicide since i'm like about the only Asian living in this hall.

See that open window opposite? 5 minutes later half of these angmohs started throwing snowballs in. I must say their aim was pretty darned good because the two people inside the window were shouting and screaming nonstop. Tip: When rowdy angmohs are downstairs, close window.