Author: Jeff

Go Federer!

Jeff

The first week of classes were good. My schedule is extremely chill–I have exactly three classes everyday, and I have ample time to eat lunch everyday. If I get into my Chem Lab, however, it’ll add 4 hours of class to my workload every week, but even so, everything seems manageable. I’ve always found that the easiest way to excel in school is to always stay on top of your work. That doesn’t mean doing all your homework the day they are assigned, but it means planning well and making sure you understand all the material before tests and stuff. So far, I haven’t gotten too much homework, but I expect there will be a lot of reading in my classes, and a lot of MGMT100 work.

Anyhow, today being Sunday, I was able to sleep-in. Yesterday, David and I played pick-up basketball for a couple hours. This, along with the workout I did a couple days ago, made me so exhausted that every muscle in my body felt sore. David’s parents were also kind enough to drive over and bring us some winter clothes and food, which I’m sure we’ll be using in the very near future. I’m also excited that Nadal lost Del Potro, since I’m a huge Federer fan. Speaking of Federer: 22 straight semifinals in majors dating back to 2005. (To put that into perspective, the next longest streak in men’s tennis is 10.) The record is mind boggling, and is a huge testament to the consistency of the Maestro. Sure, he has his weaknesses, but now with Nadal out of the picture, Federer only two wins to obtain a record-tying 6th straight U.S. Open (crazy!). Personally, I think that Federer’s confidence is at an all-time high right now, coming off back-to-back wins at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. And now with Sampras’ record out of the way, he’s playing with almost no pressure. As long as he maintains his focus and doesn’t let up like he did with Soderling, Federer will very likely emerge victorious in the end.

College!

Jeff

The past three days have been absolutely crazy, with freshman orientation, move-in, and all the other activities. To be honest, I’m pretty worn out from all the orientation activities, so I’m actually happy to finally have some down time tonight. David and I have settled in pretty well, our room isn’t very big, but we’re making the most out of it by using bed-risers and such. The only thing that we don’t have in our room is A/C, but since it’s cooling down already, I’m not really complaining. The one annoying thing about being in the M&T Program is that you have to attend orientation activities for both Wharton and the Engineering school–it’s basically a double dose of activities with virtually no break. Anyway, I’ll post more once classes start!

It’s about time.

Jeff

So I finally managed to get my license, haha. Yeah, yeah, I know I’m like 2 years behind, but since I boarded at Lawrenceville and we weren’t allowed to have cars on campus, I never bothered to take the road test. Fortunately, I passed on the first try today, so now I have a nice and shiny provisional license :D. My mom and I did some last minute shopping for school…I can’t believe I’m moving in Thursday! Meanwhile, I’ve been working on the PennSTART thing… I’m only through the first 2 skills, and I already can’t stand it. 7 more to go…great.

On the bright side, Penn gives us free installs of certain Microsoft software, so I’m currently installing Windows 7 on my laptop. Anyway, more about that later. I also need to retrospectively blog about my cousin’s wedding, but I’ll guess I’ll do that when I stop feeling so lazy.

I thought I heard a chainsaw…

Jeff,

So apparently the district committee has decided that the trees around here have been getting a bit too tall, so they’ve order a few rows of them to be “trimmed.” Now, two whole rows of tree have been reduced to nothing more than 10-foot stumps…I wonder if they’ll survive or not. Obviously, we all know that trees can survive winter without their leaves (and thus photosynthesis), because they become dormant and use stored energy in their roots and whatnot. But leaving a tree totally bare at this time of year forces it to enter a early “hibernation” period. To be sure, it’s probably going to take a long time and a lot of stored energy, but I reckon they’ll probably make it.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve always been a big fan of green plants and having a nice scenery around the place I live, which is hard to come by in a city like Beijing. According to my grandma, some of the trees have been growing so close to the buildings that they have prevented sunlight from reaching inside. While I agree that the problem can be a little annoying, I also don’t think you need to cut down an entire row of trees to solve the problem…just an annual trim or so of the branches close to the buildings will suffice.

Lights Out

Jeff, ,

So the power went out between 8:30 and 11:20 this morning. Luckily, I was asleep for most of that time, haha.

I’ve started running again this week, mainly to keep myself in shape, but also to “test” the air quality here in Beijing. Two weeks ago, after jogging for a short 10 minutes, I developed a sore throat during work the next day, but I suspect that may have been due to a cold that was going around the workplace.

This week, I’ve gone jogging twice so far, both times after dinner, and fortunately have not shown any negative side effects. In past years, I’ve heard rumors that Beijing’s air quality has had detrimental impacts on runners’ lung capacity, and while I do believe there is some truth to that, I also think that the story has been exaggerated. As the 2008 Summer Olympics has shown, despite Beijing’s reputation as a somewhat “dirty” city (but is it really worse than L.A. or London?), the air here is definitely clean enough to sustain strenuous athletic events such as the triathlon and the the marathon.  For runners like myself who simply do it for the thrill and exercise, the pollution is even less of a problem, since we’re not going that fast/hard in the first place. That being said, it can’t hurt to use some judgement when exercising. Run either in the early morning or late afternoon, since that’s when air pollution and temperature are at their lowest levels (I’m assuming you’re not going for any midnight jogs or things of that nature). Also, drink plenty of water before and after exercising. And always stretch and cooldown before workouts. These are the basic guidelines that I like to stick to no matter where I am in the world, and they help me make the most of my workouts.

I’ve also been playing a lot of guitar lately. The song I’m learning right now is called 青花瓷 (Qing Hua Ci) by Jay Chou. I’ve gotten all the chords down…now for the the lyrics, which are, of course, in Chinese :P.