The greatest distance is in our hearts.: Home for the Fall

Time check: 22nd August (Thu), 1902

Been away from home for about a week now. As promised, I'm gonna post pictures of my room!

This is what it looks like standing at the entrance of the room!

We bunked our beds. Ok not we, technically Rachel bunked our beds cuz when I was here, everything was already pretty much in place! I just had to settled in, which I am really grateful about!

80% of the stuff are all Rachel's. Like the bean bag, chair, TV, Xbox, printers, microwave, fridge and so on! The hall here is much bigger than those of NUS and people really put in a lot more efforts into decorating and making themselves feel comfortable!

A close-up view. I'm really thankful Rachel lets me share her fridge! Actually, she pretty much lends me everything! Haha. I had to fly 10000 over miles and can't possibly have these stuff with me. That's Rachel's table on the left and my dresser on the right. That's my electric kettle I got for 13USD. Comes in really handy!

My cupboard's the one on the left, with a I Love Chapel Hill sticker I got from Fall Fest (something like a mega matric fair with hell lot of CCA booths). And that's my desk!

A close-up photo of my table. Tidied-up for the sake of this picture. Haha. That's the table lamp I got from Target @ 11USD! I really love table lamps idk why. Hahaha. There's a glow-in-the-dark cup (from Fall Fest again) with disposable utensils inside. I didn't bring my utensils so I had to 'steal' them from the cafe. LOL.

My shower caddy, if you're interested at all.

& This is what I think is the most exciting!! My stash of food! Ok not like proper-food food but at least something I have for breakfast. I know it looks like there's nothing much besides instant noodles. There're actually granola bars and biscuits under the noodle. I also have hot dogs, yogurt, ice-cream and apples in the fridge. So don't worry cuz I'm not letting all my hair fall off by eating only instant noodles.

As expected, meals here are really expensive as compared to Singapore. I can't have a bowl of $3 bar chor mee and if I feel like it order a cup of fruit juice for $1.50 and taadaa $4.50 for lunch! Meals over here cost around $8-12 on the average. Except for fast food of course, which is usually around $4 - $9? I realise I probably won't be able to cook (as often as I think I could) because for one, groceries shopping isn't THAT convenient and I don't have the equipment like saucepans as well as condiments. :( Sooooo I've gotten myself meal plans from the school!

They have various plans. I picked the cheapest one that costs 1175USD. It includes 100 meals (from the dining hall) and $200 flex. Flex is like credits I can use to buy meals around the campus. Meals from the meal plans are served in the dining halls. Basically, it's like buffet-styled meals & the menu is overwhelming.

This is an example of the menu if you wanna have a look: http://www.dining.unc.edu/MenusHours/MenuDetails?dt=8/22/2013&loc=Top%20of%20Lenoir&ml=Lunch#Bakery

So, on the average, every meal costs around $9.75. I wouldn't say it's expensive cuz the variety is really quite commendable and it's literally BUFFET. It's just that you probably wouldn't enjoy having buffet for EVERY meal... Or maybe you do?? Hahaha ok at least for me, it's too much. I get about 5 meals per week from the meal plans. For breakfast, I'll probably have cereal/bread and then I'll have a late heavy lunch so I can probably just have snacks for dinner. I can totally understand why people get fat here looking at the meal plan!

So, today I had my first lunch in the dining hall! I didn't want to look weird taking pictures of the food being served in the whole hall but I did take pictures of my food!

Grilled Chicken Breast + Pasta w Marinara Sauce. There was a really nice chicken soup which I forgot to take a photo of!

I can't remember the name of the cake but it's really nice! And YOU CAN MAKE YOUR OWN WAFFLES!!!! It's like the most awesome discovery I had today. I LOVE WAFFLES. And it was pretty good!! I love making them omg. I think I'm going to have like 2 waffles everything I go there. I da bao-ed the banana back for dinner! Heh.

& Interestingly, they have sushi as well! Haha. It was not bad, though I really can't compare them to those we eat in Japanese restaurants.

That's pretty much all for where I'm gonna stay and what I'm gonna eat for the next 4 months!

KS and I went to Franklin St the other day for dinner after getting our phonecards done! We met Rika (a student from UNC which we met during orientation) on our way to AT&T and she recommended a Vietnamese restaurant called Lime & Basil!

Fried pohpiah which I honestly can't recall its vietnamese name.

Ks ordered fried rice and I ordered seafood pho (which really is just kway tiao soup). We both were touched to tears cuz we miss asian food SO MUCH already!!! I really love soupy stuff. Like forever and always but the closest I get here is probably instant noodles. :( This is also the place we finally found chilli sauce at!

Ks also ordered Tiger beer. Apparently the Tiger beer we have in Singapore is usually grade B and grade A Tiger beer is usually exported! I didn't try since I don't drink and I don't like beer. But according to Ks, it really does taste better. But yeah it could always be psychological effect. Hahaha.

Enough of my food adventure! Lessons already started since Tuesday. And I'M SO GRATEFUL I CAN TAKE ECONS OVER HEREEEE!!!! I don't have to go back and get all stressed up about Macroecons. :D Everything that's in business school is pretty much the same. The way lessons are conducted, participation, the things covered during lesson, other than the fact that they are mostly in US context. The school is really nice and I believe the building is quite new cuz it looks that way!