Oh gosh, I haven't blogged for so long throughout this eventful period. In case in future I do want to know what I've been doing so far, here goes:
- Performed salsa on stage for Jitterbugs Studio Recital as part of a student team. I was strangely calm on stage - more calm than I usually was during rehearsals, and as I performed I felt as though I wasn't there. It was the same feeling that I had during National Science Challenge. After that, I went to cafe iguana with the girls for a post-performance chill-out! They were gossiping about the instructors and the good-looking guys at the recital, and they didn't seem to mind my presence. Much of their info was obtained from facebook, and the nicknames they give to some of the guys are really amusing! Like, there seems to be this agreed-upon ranking of which guys are most good-looking, and since nobody knows the name of the number two guy(everyone was too shy to ask), he's code-named "second choice". Among themselves they really refer to him that way, like,
"Eh, I saw second choice on the MRT just now!"
"Really, where!"
And apparently there is also a mutually agreed-upon ranking for the girls among the girls too. Discussing and ranking of people according to looks seemed like something that girls would do in secondary school, but they are all around mid-twenties. I remember that even among the 07S06D guys there was an agreed-upon 四大美女 within the class, so hearing them gossip somewhat reminded me of the first 3 months in RJ.
- Learnt how to use the Dirac notation in quantum mechanics. Gosh. Now that I think back, what I've learnt in those three weeks isn't that hard after all! Why did it take me three weeks then? I suspect that treating quantum states as vectors is very unintuitive. And then there is still index notation and tensor product and unitary transformations before I can understand the second page of the 100 page primer to the 4 page primer to the research proper.... it reminds me of the time in sec 3 I asked Chandru about motion under air resistance. He wrote 10 lines of solution, pointed to the first 2 lines and said, "This is the Physics." Then he pointed to the next 8 lines and said, "And this is the Mathematics."
- Went to China. The driving is insane. Also, we went there as guests to a wedding, of whom the bride's family is from UK and the groom's family is from China, so being bilingual Singaporeans, we offered to help translate! Though towards the end, we felt a little under-appreciated.
- Applications. After getting rejected by so many unis and colleges, I felt a bit like I had to settle for NTU. When I went to check my status online, I was just thinking of getting over with with whole US apps thingy, so I was really really surprised to see the acceptance by Princeton. Even though I showed the page to my family and they were all really happy for me, it still felt a bit unreal then. Right then I wanted to share the good news with all my friends who have supported me in my application. But at the same time, I wondered if sharing the news would sound like showing off if they didn't get into the universities they wanted. So I only told a few people then. But, the other thing I hadn't expected was how sincere zi lin was when she congratulated me. It's definitely not that I thought that she was an insincere person, but it's the first time I've ever received congratulations that really made me feel that the other person was happy for me rather than something that you are expected to say in accordance to social norms. To me, those were the three best things that happened to me that day: Princeton acceptance, Princeton financial aid, and a sincere congratulation(s?).
