Wednesday, April 09, 2008
April showers bring May flowers...not
March and April showers bring much annoyance to one and all; I've lost count the number of times I stayed back in Monash until 8pm just because it rained too damn heavily at my usual leaving time of 5pm. That's what you get for living in this part of Malaysia, I guess. On the bright side, it isn't as hot here compared to the rest of the country (like Melaka, which I returned to last weekend for Cheng Beng).
Anyway, I've already finished two major assignments that were due last week, thank goodness. Hopefully good grades will come my way, especially for the Film Studies one I wrote on Napoleon Dynamite. It'll be slightly lighter this week with no major activities coming up this weekend.
Speaking of activities:
22nd March 2008 - MNSM Dark Cave Trip
The Dark Cave is this cave that's one of the Batu Caves, and MNSM had a trip over to that place. There was a lot of walking, quite a bit of wiggling through crawlspaces barely a feet high and a hell lot more waiting around because we had a group of 40 people. Of course, after doing some spelunking, it's a crime not to get dirty. Time for some photos (courtesy of Su Ying)!
Anyway, I've already finished two major assignments that were due last week, thank goodness. Hopefully good grades will come my way, especially for the Film Studies one I wrote on Napoleon Dynamite. It'll be slightly lighter this week with no major activities coming up this weekend.
Speaking of activities:
22nd March 2008 - MNSM Dark Cave Trip
The Dark Cave is this cave that's one of the Batu Caves, and MNSM had a trip over to that place. There was a lot of walking, quite a bit of wiggling through crawlspaces barely a feet high and a hell lot more waiting around because we had a group of 40 people. Of course, after doing some spelunking, it's a crime not to get dirty. Time for some photos (courtesy of Su Ying)!
Top-down view of the entrance.
[Drama]Right at the gates of the dark pits[/Drama]
The ubiquitous Batu Caves monkeys feeling all patriotic.
Into the abyss... You see the hole in this picture? Don't let it fool you; about four metres into the passage we had to crawl through an ultra-claustrophobic tunnel that hugs you on all corners. People have gotten stuck there before, according to our guide.
Because 40 people had to take turns going into that tunnel, we spent a considerable amount of time waiting.
Who the man?
This is a photo taken at the other end of the crawlspace while I was still waiting for my turn to go in.
Cave cockroaches! They eat bat crap.Finally, before I stop talking about the Dark Cave, before and after shots taken by Izuan:
Sebelum.
Selepas.And I'm spent.
4th April 2008 - Monash Cultural Night
I don't have much to say about the Cultural Night, actually. The highlights were the spectacular array of costumes that people came in and a couple of notable performances. Oh, and because I dragged the girl along, too.
I never realised that Elaine was taller than Carrie. Or maybe it's just the angle and the pose...Speaking of the girl, as of yesterday, we've been together for half a year. I know it doesn't sound much to most people but considering that both of us are kinda new to this relationship thing, I must say we're making rather good progress. Here's to many more six months to come, sweetheart.
I gove my lirl.Note: I tried my best to tone done the mushiness. I hope it worked.
Pointless Fact of the Day:
I came across this rather interesting case study in my International Economics textbook (Pugel, 2007) as I was doing research for my assignment. Anyway, do you know what a tariff is? It's a tax imposed on imports coming into a country aka the reason why imported cars are so bloody expensive in Malaysia.
Most countries apply tariffs to certain groups of products, for example, fruits and veggies as opposed to apples and broccoli (mmm... broccoli). Thus, sometimes items are classified really strangely in order to escape tariffs:
- Carrots are considered fruits in the European Union, allowing Portugal to sell carrot jam (I didn't know there was such a thing!) throughout Western Europe without high duties.
- Also, land snails (French escargots) are considered fish in the EU. Friggin' flippin' fish! Because of that, snail farmers get to collect fish farm subsidies.
- In the US, toys that depict humans are known as dolls and are subject to 12% import tariffs. However, in 2003 a judge ruled that although most action figures are dolls, the X-Men (among others) depict nonhuman mutants and thus are subject to the 7% import tariffs imposed on 'normal' toys!
Ah... The stuff you learn as an economics student. It's the silly little things like these that keep me alive in my degree.
