Thursday, November 12 2009
Yesterday, I brought my hand phone to the workshop with high spirits hoping that it will be fixed as it was a new phone. But this morning when I went to find out what did the people diagnosed my phone with, I was in for a big shock. The first question that they ask me when I reached the shop was if I bought the phone in Russia or not. When I said no, they told me that they finally understood and gave me an answer of they couldn’t do anything to help me repair my phone. They said that there is nothing they can do and most probably no one here can help and whatever that they said next was unknown as they started to speak in a very fluent and fast Russian language making me unable to hear a word coherently.
When I reached school for my lecture for the day, I got my second shock. My friend from another group who has the same teacher for physiology classes told us that the teacher was sick and hence they had another teacher for classes. Since this week we are having majors for physiology in the gastro-intestinal section, the teacher gave them another kind of exam method than what our usual teacher gives. Upon hearing that, all of my group mates and were praying that teacher would be there tomorrow as we do not want to have another teacher giving us an exam method that we are not used to. But all that I can do now is study hard and keep my fingers crossed.
Other than the two horrible shocks I had a nice piece of news from yesterday. I have been trying to get my group mates who live under the same roof as I do to move out with me as we stay very far away from the university and hence spend a lot of time on travelling to and fro our destination.
While I was watching movie yesterday night, my friend suddenly asked me if I am willing to move out with them. I was filled with happiness and ecstasy upon hearing the news. I have been praying for a long time hoping that I can move out to a better place. This is one of the best news I have heard since a long time and is also one of my wishes while staying here.
I can only hope that this decision is a final one and my friends won’t change their minds at the last minute. I really can’t wait till I move out. Just thinking of the things I can do once I move and the things I can have made me wide awake looking at the ceiling for two hours before I could fall asleep yesterday night.
Go to go study for my major tomorrow. Go Nathaniel!
Thursday, November 12, 2009
Crazy Tuesday
Tuesday, November 10 2009
I entered the blog very early yesterday but there were a lot of things that happened after I uploaded the blog.
After dinner, I watched movies as usual but for a break I watched some clips on volleyball setting and saving techniques. As I was watching these clips, I was filled with energy and the urge to play well and hope to have some good results in the coming interuniversity games.
Later I received a call from one of my teammate for the interuniversity games. He told me that since his old team asked him to join them, he agreed. Thus I was left with a player short and not to mention a more stable and skillful player lost. At the thought of this I got frustrated and now I feel kind of hopeless for the games. Somehow I have lost the urge to perform well in the games but there is still some part of me that do not want to disappoint the junior. I guess we can only wait and see which part of me will win this internal battle of mine.
Later, I resumed watching the series I was enjoying. It was now at the climax where the main actor has changed from an annoying person to a kind person but was cheated by his friends and family leaving him penniless with no one and nowhere to go to, except for an innocent girl whom he befriended earlier. While watching him being humiliated by his ex-colleagues I felt a pain stabbed into the heart, feeling that the world is such a dangerous place filled with all kinds of people.
Today, after reaching home when I was cooking dinner (boiling soup) I left the cover on the table and was preparing another dish, my friend came in the kitchen and wanted to start steaming some stuff. He then pulled down a pot to use it for the base of the steamer and then he took the cover away without asking me.
I then told him that I need to use it for my soup and he gave me a questioning look. He said that he thought it doesn’t fit the current pot I am using. By then I was already a little angry as I have seen him using the cover with the pot million of times. He then went to look for another cover from a stack of dirty items. He then took the cover I was using again without saying anything and when I asked him what I should be using then, he said that I could use the dirty cover! I was fuming by then. For god sake, I washed the cover till it was clean and he used it and just pass me a dirty one? What on earth was happening? And the reason he was using the pot is because he said to his girlfriend that his wok was too precious to be used for steaming stuff. What kind of reason is that can someone please tell me? You are willing to use somebody’s stuff and let it spoil but not your own? Very good reasoning skills I see.
While writing this I am still fuming with flames thinking back and at the same time I also feel a little childish taking every little thing into account and behave like a child getting angry over everything. I really can’t make up my mind. I want to change for the better and behave more mature and gentleman but I think it is true that it is easier to change a whole dynasty then to change one’s own habit or personality as the saying goes in a Chinese proverb.
I entered the blog very early yesterday but there were a lot of things that happened after I uploaded the blog.
After dinner, I watched movies as usual but for a break I watched some clips on volleyball setting and saving techniques. As I was watching these clips, I was filled with energy and the urge to play well and hope to have some good results in the coming interuniversity games.
Later I received a call from one of my teammate for the interuniversity games. He told me that since his old team asked him to join them, he agreed. Thus I was left with a player short and not to mention a more stable and skillful player lost. At the thought of this I got frustrated and now I feel kind of hopeless for the games. Somehow I have lost the urge to perform well in the games but there is still some part of me that do not want to disappoint the junior. I guess we can only wait and see which part of me will win this internal battle of mine.
Later, I resumed watching the series I was enjoying. It was now at the climax where the main actor has changed from an annoying person to a kind person but was cheated by his friends and family leaving him penniless with no one and nowhere to go to, except for an innocent girl whom he befriended earlier. While watching him being humiliated by his ex-colleagues I felt a pain stabbed into the heart, feeling that the world is such a dangerous place filled with all kinds of people.
Today, after reaching home when I was cooking dinner (boiling soup) I left the cover on the table and was preparing another dish, my friend came in the kitchen and wanted to start steaming some stuff. He then pulled down a pot to use it for the base of the steamer and then he took the cover away without asking me.
I then told him that I need to use it for my soup and he gave me a questioning look. He said that he thought it doesn’t fit the current pot I am using. By then I was already a little angry as I have seen him using the cover with the pot million of times. He then went to look for another cover from a stack of dirty items. He then took the cover I was using again without saying anything and when I asked him what I should be using then, he said that I could use the dirty cover! I was fuming by then. For god sake, I washed the cover till it was clean and he used it and just pass me a dirty one? What on earth was happening? And the reason he was using the pot is because he said to his girlfriend that his wok was too precious to be used for steaming stuff. What kind of reason is that can someone please tell me? You are willing to use somebody’s stuff and let it spoil but not your own? Very good reasoning skills I see.
While writing this I am still fuming with flames thinking back and at the same time I also feel a little childish taking every little thing into account and behave like a child getting angry over everything. I really can’t make up my mind. I want to change for the better and behave more mature and gentleman but I think it is true that it is easier to change a whole dynasty then to change one’s own habit or personality as the saying goes in a Chinese proverb.
Monday, November 9, 2009
Lazy
Monday, November 9 2009
Yesterday was Sunday, and I went training with the university girl volleyball team. Since the captain was absent that day, he passed his job to a fellow male volleyball member. In the end all the male members present helped out in training the girls.
What was funny was that, as it was nearing the Kursk Games (the yearly university games), the committee wanted to do some photo shots and video on the team members, but they chose a day when our captain wasn’t there. It ended up as us who are less experienced and skilled players who took the pictures.
As during this week or the next we will be having the interuniversity games, we decided to allow the new members to try out playing on court and also have a chance improve their serving technique as quite a number of them will be playing.
After training I had to rush through my studies as I had an extra class of physiology today since we didn’t have it on the last Friday. But instead of using my time wisely to study I ended up studying and chatting with a friend.
So I don’t think I can say anything when teacher gave me a B for class today. I really don’t deserve to be treated so well by my parents. I should have been studying but I got side tracked just because of my cravings to chit-chat.
Anyway I don’t want to write anything longer that isn’t interesting and I have my meal to finish so I guess this is about it for today.
Yesterday was Sunday, and I went training with the university girl volleyball team. Since the captain was absent that day, he passed his job to a fellow male volleyball member. In the end all the male members present helped out in training the girls.
What was funny was that, as it was nearing the Kursk Games (the yearly university games), the committee wanted to do some photo shots and video on the team members, but they chose a day when our captain wasn’t there. It ended up as us who are less experienced and skilled players who took the pictures.
As during this week or the next we will be having the interuniversity games, we decided to allow the new members to try out playing on court and also have a chance improve their serving technique as quite a number of them will be playing.
After training I had to rush through my studies as I had an extra class of physiology today since we didn’t have it on the last Friday. But instead of using my time wisely to study I ended up studying and chatting with a friend.
So I don’t think I can say anything when teacher gave me a B for class today. I really don’t deserve to be treated so well by my parents. I should have been studying but I got side tracked just because of my cravings to chit-chat.
Anyway I don’t want to write anything longer that isn’t interesting and I have my meal to finish so I guess this is about it for today.
Improvements ?
Saturday, November 07 2009
It’s finally the weekend again, the time that everyone has been looking forward to the whole week. Weekly volleyball training is being held and this makes me tremble with excitement. But like in everything, there is always a good side and bad side.
Earlier this week when I was chatting with my parents I found out that my mother has some problem with her ears. Pus were forming and the doctor said that her hearing is affected. Thus she might need to use the hearing aid. When I heard this not only was I shocked but also sad. To make things worse, my mother told me that since the hearing aid is quite expensive, she will just try to adapt to her current situation instead of buying the aid. This made me very sad to think that I can’t do anything to help her. The only thing I can do is to study hard and not let all her hard earn money used on my studies to be spend on vain. Mum, thank you for supporting us always and please take very good care of yourself.
Now about the more light-hearted stuff. As usual we were having our volleyball training and this week a lot of people came, they were a lot more juniors that came this week thanks to one of the junior who pulled the others to the training. I really need to thank you for bringing more juniors to play volleyball.
During training, I felt that since I found out the mistake of my setting technique last week, I have finally break through myself and is now better in setting. Though, this is only my personal view and nobody has said anything about my improvement.
After training, for reasons unknown I was very talkative and was babbling all the way home. Maybe I was excited about the coming competition within the university. I really think that my team will lose to the other volleyball player team as they are more stable in their technique than mine. (the usual volleyball players were broken into a few teams and mixed with new players)
I am also doubting the abilities of my team players when my fellow friends from the other team ask me to trust them as they aren’t as bad as I think. I really hope we can have a nice match during the competition as we haven’t been playing in court since we started training after resuming from the summer holidays.
Lets just keep our fingers crossed and hope that everything will turn out smoothly as the competition should be starting from next week. Good luck!
It’s finally the weekend again, the time that everyone has been looking forward to the whole week. Weekly volleyball training is being held and this makes me tremble with excitement. But like in everything, there is always a good side and bad side.
Earlier this week when I was chatting with my parents I found out that my mother has some problem with her ears. Pus were forming and the doctor said that her hearing is affected. Thus she might need to use the hearing aid. When I heard this not only was I shocked but also sad. To make things worse, my mother told me that since the hearing aid is quite expensive, she will just try to adapt to her current situation instead of buying the aid. This made me very sad to think that I can’t do anything to help her. The only thing I can do is to study hard and not let all her hard earn money used on my studies to be spend on vain. Mum, thank you for supporting us always and please take very good care of yourself.
Now about the more light-hearted stuff. As usual we were having our volleyball training and this week a lot of people came, they were a lot more juniors that came this week thanks to one of the junior who pulled the others to the training. I really need to thank you for bringing more juniors to play volleyball.
During training, I felt that since I found out the mistake of my setting technique last week, I have finally break through myself and is now better in setting. Though, this is only my personal view and nobody has said anything about my improvement.
After training, for reasons unknown I was very talkative and was babbling all the way home. Maybe I was excited about the coming competition within the university. I really think that my team will lose to the other volleyball player team as they are more stable in their technique than mine. (the usual volleyball players were broken into a few teams and mixed with new players)
I am also doubting the abilities of my team players when my fellow friends from the other team ask me to trust them as they aren’t as bad as I think. I really hope we can have a nice match during the competition as we haven’t been playing in court since we started training after resuming from the summer holidays.
Lets just keep our fingers crossed and hope that everything will turn out smoothly as the competition should be starting from next week. Good luck!
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Post Holiday Feelings
Thursday, November 5 2009
Today was the first day back to university life after a day of holiday. As we do not have a lot of holidays in Russia, I was very happy that I had even a day of holiday after the resuming class from summer break.
As classes were quite late today I didn’t really set my alarm clock. When I woke up it felt as though as it was the beginning of a new week because of the lack of holidays in Russia. As usual, I had breakfast and went to university.
The first class of the day was a lecture, before the lecture started, my friend asked if I had a hair cut and I replied yes. She then said that why did I cut my hair during winter as it would be warmer and a lot more logical for people to leave their hair long during the winter period. After giving it some thought I just shrugged and said that it doesn’t really matter and after having a hair cut I look neater.
After classes when I was on the way back home, I suddenly remembered that I had to inform other members of the volleyball team about the games that is being held on the following week. When I called the juniors, they were so excited about it and didn’t wait for me to invite them but asked if they could join.
I was quite taken back by their enthusiasm but it is not like I am complaining. As a matter of fact, I am very happy to know that the juniors are having an interest in volleyball. When I told this to my class mate beside me , she just laughed and said it was also like this when it was my first time hearing about the games.
Thinking back, I laughed at the statement and agreed. It seemed like ages ago that it was the first time I was playing volleyball official match and to think now that we have all come this far.
I am having my weekly physiology class tomorrow and have a lot of studying to do. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that I can get good results and maybe be able to have no classes as the teacher said she will be quite busy tomorrow and asked us we could change our class time but unfortunately we had class during that time too. So, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best to happen!
Today was the first day back to university life after a day of holiday. As we do not have a lot of holidays in Russia, I was very happy that I had even a day of holiday after the resuming class from summer break.
As classes were quite late today I didn’t really set my alarm clock. When I woke up it felt as though as it was the beginning of a new week because of the lack of holidays in Russia. As usual, I had breakfast and went to university.
The first class of the day was a lecture, before the lecture started, my friend asked if I had a hair cut and I replied yes. She then said that why did I cut my hair during winter as it would be warmer and a lot more logical for people to leave their hair long during the winter period. After giving it some thought I just shrugged and said that it doesn’t really matter and after having a hair cut I look neater.
After classes when I was on the way back home, I suddenly remembered that I had to inform other members of the volleyball team about the games that is being held on the following week. When I called the juniors, they were so excited about it and didn’t wait for me to invite them but asked if they could join.
I was quite taken back by their enthusiasm but it is not like I am complaining. As a matter of fact, I am very happy to know that the juniors are having an interest in volleyball. When I told this to my class mate beside me , she just laughed and said it was also like this when it was my first time hearing about the games.
Thinking back, I laughed at the statement and agreed. It seemed like ages ago that it was the first time I was playing volleyball official match and to think now that we have all come this far.
I am having my weekly physiology class tomorrow and have a lot of studying to do. Keep your fingers crossed and hope that I can get good results and maybe be able to have no classes as the teacher said she will be quite busy tomorrow and asked us we could change our class time but unfortunately we had class during that time too. So, keep your fingers crossed and hope for the best to happen!
Happy Holiday
Wednesday, November 4 2009
Today is a holiday in Russia that is why I am very happy today. According to my friends today’s holiday is in accordance to the day when Russia changed its name from Soviet Union to Russia Federation although I am not very sure about this.
I had a wonderful night the day before. As it was a holiday today, my group mates and I decided to have dinner together and on the menu was fried chicken, homemade shandy and salad. The dinner was awesome!
During our chat we spoke about the past, about the time when we just reached Russia for the first time. It was fun looking back and realize how much we have all changed and to think about all the stupid things we have done. It is really a wonder how much things have changed only in a short amount of time, as short as only 2 years. After dinner we chatted for quite a bit before lazily standing up to clear the plates and stuff.
About today, because it was a holiday I let myself sleep in without setting my alarm clock. But my biological didn’t allow me to sleep in and I ended up waking up around 6a.m. I had to watch movies to make myself fall asleep again.
But when I woke up, I had a serious headache. Despite having a headache I still whipped myself a breakfast that is good enough for a holiday morning. After that, my friend asked me if I still wanted her help to cut my hair as I asked her yesterday and am usually reluctant to cut my hair.
I did cut my hair and am proud to say that it does look good. I can’t express how much I really want to thank my friend for doing me a favor by giving my hair a trim.
Later in the evening I had volleyball training. During today’s training, I finally realized what was actually the correct way of setting the ball. It was a lot more easier than usual to set the ball this way. Also, during the training the captain said that there will be MY GAMES after 2 weeks. The news of the games was so sudden that it gave all the players a shock though I was also excited to hear about the games.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Laid back Sunday
Sunday, 1 November 2009
Sunday is a day which to some means the beginning of a new week while to others means the end of a week. To me both are correct, it only differs in the point of view. Sunday is the only day of the week when I do not have to set my alarm clock and am able to sleep through the whole day. But as the saying goes in a Chinese proverb, the time in which we have fun is always seemingly short. The ability to sleep in and enjoy the weekend doesn’t last long.
Normally every Sunday evening, I would go to the sports center to help our university volleyball girl team to train. But this weekend, I received a call stating that the sports center that we usually go to had caught fire during the last few days and is currently undergoing renovation. Hence the hall wasn’t able to be used for our training. But little did I know that the girl team had their training as usual because the only that had changed was the location of training.
Though, by the time I knew this information it was a little too late and I ended up not going to the training. Anyway, it is not a bad idea as this gives me more time to rest. Speaking of which the whole day was pretty uneventful as I did nothing in particular except cooking my breakfast for about 2 hours or so.
I should be studying now for my major in Microbiology class tomorrow. But I guess I will have a rest for about half an hour or so by writing this and maybe have a bath.
Sometimes, I really envy other group as they have better relationship among the group. It’s not like my group doesn’t have good relationship but it is just that sometimes I feel that all of us don’t really trust each other and will go behind each other’s back to do something that will help only ourselves.
I do not really know if this happens only in my group while in other groups they look alright or maybe this is just because the grass is always greener on the other side. I really do not like it when we have to talk about something bad about our own friends behind their backs. Of course I do this also but it really do feels uncomfortable talking behind people’s back.
I guess I do not want to write so much today as I still haven’t start studying and my half an hour is almost up. I hope I will have something more interesting to write about tomorrow. And keep your fingers crossed for me and pray that I will get good results for tomorrow’s exam. I will write about the results as soon as I know them. That’s it for today I guess.
Sunday is a day which to some means the beginning of a new week while to others means the end of a week. To me both are correct, it only differs in the point of view. Sunday is the only day of the week when I do not have to set my alarm clock and am able to sleep through the whole day. But as the saying goes in a Chinese proverb, the time in which we have fun is always seemingly short. The ability to sleep in and enjoy the weekend doesn’t last long.
Normally every Sunday evening, I would go to the sports center to help our university volleyball girl team to train. But this weekend, I received a call stating that the sports center that we usually go to had caught fire during the last few days and is currently undergoing renovation. Hence the hall wasn’t able to be used for our training. But little did I know that the girl team had their training as usual because the only that had changed was the location of training.
Though, by the time I knew this information it was a little too late and I ended up not going to the training. Anyway, it is not a bad idea as this gives me more time to rest. Speaking of which the whole day was pretty uneventful as I did nothing in particular except cooking my breakfast for about 2 hours or so.
I should be studying now for my major in Microbiology class tomorrow. But I guess I will have a rest for about half an hour or so by writing this and maybe have a bath.
Sometimes, I really envy other group as they have better relationship among the group. It’s not like my group doesn’t have good relationship but it is just that sometimes I feel that all of us don’t really trust each other and will go behind each other’s back to do something that will help only ourselves.
I do not really know if this happens only in my group while in other groups they look alright or maybe this is just because the grass is always greener on the other side. I really do not like it when we have to talk about something bad about our own friends behind their backs. Of course I do this also but it really do feels uncomfortable talking behind people’s back.
I guess I do not want to write so much today as I still haven’t start studying and my half an hour is almost up. I hope I will have something more interesting to write about tomorrow. And keep your fingers crossed for me and pray that I will get good results for tomorrow’s exam. I will write about the results as soon as I know them. That’s it for today I guess.
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