Day 63...Friday Activities

This morning, I went to the graduate office to ask about admission since I am not sure if I will be an International applicant or U.S. citizen. The pretty officer there told me that I will be considered as an out-of-state applicant but still U.S. citizen.

After that, I went to see P Ja at the library. Then we went to the post office, that is on campus, because P Ja had to make money order to order her transcript from London.

When we had finished from the post office, we walked to the ELS center to get our grades. I also got the certificate that I had attended the courses here and also the certificate for the highest score in grammar. So glad...

Day 62...The Last Day in ELS

I had a final and writing in the morning. In the afternoon class, Public Speaking, Jane let us to evaluate ourselves, told jokes and played games. In TOEFL Prep class, Mrs. Ruth leaded us to International Admission Center to be advised about applying to LA Tech.

Around 4:30 P.M., P Ja and I walked to Forthy Monkey. It is constitution of ELS in Ruston that the students will have free coffee and some desserts and hang out there with the teachers in the last day. David and Mahammed also taught me to play chess.

After that we went to hang out in Mahammed apartment. We came home around 8:00 P.M. because I realized that it was dusk.

Day 60...Good News!

Remember? I took TOEFL test 3 weeks ago (Day42).
I've got the scores today and I've passed it with 88 scores. So, I don't need to study in English any more. Just pay attention in GRE.

By the way, I'll go to see Dr. Box tomorrow to talk about what I'm supposed to do next. I think I'll apply to LA Tech soon.

Day 57...Thai Student Meeting

Today, P Gan invited us to go have dinner at his apartment because he was alone. Song, his roommate, had been back to Korea. P Ja planed to make some Nam Prig Kapi, so she asked P Gan to buy an egg plant. I also asked Aig and Mon to join us.

Aig and Mon cooked some food and brought there. P Ja and I brought some Nam Prig Kapi but we did not have enough lime so we stopped by County Market and grabbed some. Limes were a bit more expensive than the day before. Then I just picked a small bottle of limeade.

When we reached P Gan's apartment, we cooked fried egg plant coated with flour to eat with Nam Prig Kapi. The limeade in the bottle I had bought was not as sour as lime. We added our Nam Prig Kapi with almost half a bottle but it still was not sour. Fotunately, it was not too bad.

After we finished the main course, Aig and Mon had some banana in coconut milk as dessert. It was lovely!

Day 54...Photo Update

I've already finished my homework, so I have a time to update some photos.

Set I: In the Dorm

My room in the dorm. The room number is 223.

My desk...It was by the door.

My bed...I took these pictures in the day I was going to move out, so It was a little bit messy.
See? There were a fridge and a microwave.

There were a sink and a closet as well.
I didn't dare to take a picture in the bathroom. I suppose you know why.

Finally (for this set), my ex-roommate, Hikari, from Japan.
She is an athlete. She plays soccer. Is that cool?

#########################################################

Set II: My apartment

My bedroom...My roommate and I sleep on the floor but it's not bad.

Bathroom...It's not bad for sure.

Kitchen...There are always some small roaches parade around.

My corner. This table is the one I have told you before [Day 45...New Table, New OS].
Cool, right?

This is the dining table set that I've got from our neighbor.
Look new!

Then, the self...On the top, there are small statues of Buddha.
On the right is a stack of drawers. On the top of the stack, two small Pi Hsieh facing the front door.


-- The End --

Day 52...Thai Night @ Murphy's Home

We had had an appointment with Steve and Jill for at least a month that we would cook Thai food for them at their home. We just did it today.

We brought two kinds of soup... Mara stuffed with ground pork and something like green squash. We had Som Tam as well. P Noon and P Gan brought some fried rice, chicken with black source and chicken with ginger. For dessert, we had Salim. That was so great even it was an instant one.

Today so, we have a new dining table with two chairs. Our neighbor graduated and she is going to move out. She could not sell her stuff and she know that our room is still empty, so she gave us the table. How kind is she?

Day 51...In Social Party

These days, I was so busy with reinstalling FreeBSD. It's had a problem with WPA. I don't know why.

Today my friends and I went to the church as usual. As we reached there P Ja called Steve to ask about the activity in the church. Steve came up and leaded us to a farewell party. It was a social party! There were volunteers served us food. And they were all elderly. So I just sat quietly...

Day 48...Still Wet Day

It still has rained today. All wet...

As for every week, we went to have lunch at Wesley Foundation. Actually it is one buck per meal but today it was free. I met an American girl. She was born in Peru. Her mom speaks Spanish so that she can speak both English and Spanish very well.

Before I got back to class I had bought a CD that they sold to collect some money for their activities on public good. It was two bucks. See...I involved.

I stopped by dr. Box's office this afternoon. He told me to try on GRE again...SO SAD!

Day 47...Wet Day

Last night, I got weird with Windows on my laptop. I thought it was spyware. So I reinstalled Windows. And I will try on FreeBSD again on this weekend.

Today, there was nothing much. It had rained since last night and just stopped in the afternoon. Fortunately, I have an umbrella. :D

Day 45...New Table, New OS

It was last Saturday that I was attracted by a coffee table at the used furniture store. As I like to sit and work on the floor, so I decided to have this table as my working table. It was $45, all wood. :)

And today so I installed FreeBSD 7.0 on my laptop without CD. It was not hard as I'd found a software called "unetbootin". It can run on many platforms. But I still have a problem with wireless network since my friend's AP has WPA. I'll try it again tomorrow. It has to work!

Day 44...New Shelf & Esan Day

This morning, P Ja and I assembled our new shelf that we'd bought last night. After that we cooked Esan food that was Grilled chicken, Som Tam (Spicy papaya salad), Lab Moo (Spicy ground pork), Soop Nor Mai (Spicy bamboo shoot), Tom Yam Kung (Spicy shrimp soup) and sticky rice. P Gan and P Noon helped us bring it to their apartments. Song and Chucky also joined us. They enjoyed our food. After we ate sticky rice, we were so sleepy...

In the afternoon, P Ja went to the library to do her homework. I stayed home, did my homework and arranged my books onto the new shelf. :D

Day 42...TOEFL in Monroe

Today P Ja and I took TOEFL test together in Monroe (the city I left the flight when I came here). We got up at 5:30 AM. The taxi reached our apartment at 6:30...earlier than the time we had told him. The driver drove at 60 mph...slower than the speed limit. However we could reach the test center before report time 30 mins. So we walked around the campus (University of LA, Monroe).

After the test, we went to Bao Bao, the Asian food market (but belongs to Vietnamese). There are many Thai ingredients, like many flavor of MAMA, can curry, palm sugar, etc. We had made an appointment with Song, P Gan, P Noon to pick us up there.

Then they took us to a place like department store. But I cannot remember the name. We walked around, got into many brand name stores. But I bought nothing. Why do I have to buy since I have enough?

We went to another grocery because the guys wanted to find some ingredients for Pad Thai tonight. P Ja and I spent a lot on frozen meat. We need food for at least one week. My friends also do like this.

Tonight we had Pad Thai and shrimp omelet at P Gan and Song's apartment. P Noon cooked Pad Thai. It was OK...nearly the original. :)

Day 40...Nothing New

Actually the title of this post is related to the last one...

My second day of this session seems to go well. I don't have a lot of homework today but as I attend Public Speaking and TOEFL Prep classes, I probably have to work harder than the last session. Anyway I still have time to find something interesting :D

Tell you what...Golden Fish could be trained!

Day 39...New Things

This is the second day at my new apartment and the first day of my class in this session.

Everything seems to be OK...Still don't have furniture. I spent 2 days on cleaning my apt. It's very dirty when I first got in.

I just also reinstalled OS on my laptop. And I forgot to install Thai language. (I've returned my friend the CD.) So I cannot type Thai now. It's good to practice English with writing diary though. ;)

Day 37...MOVED!

เมื่อคืนวันศุกร์ยุ่งกับการเก็บของจะย้ายออกจากหอพัก ก็เลยไม่ได้เข้ามาเขียน
เมื่อวาน ย้ายเข้า new apartment ก็เลยไม่ได้เข้ามาอีก

ว่าแต่ ตอนนี้ต้องอาศัยอยู่กับเอกกับมนก่อน เพราะห้องเราไม่มีไฟฟ้าใช้... :(
เราไปเปิดแล้วนะ เมื่อวันศุกร์ แต่ไม่รู้ยังไง มันไม่มีไฟฟ้ามา แถมไม่มีแก๊สด้วย วันพรุ่งนี้ต้องไปโบ๊งเบ๊งกับมัน

เมื่อคืน พี่จ๋า (roommate ข้อย) กลับมาจาก New York เห็นห้องก็โอเคนะ แล้วก็เลยออกไปซื้อของด้วยกัน ช็อปกระจาย เพราะยังขาดของอีกเยอะ กว่าจะกลับมาก็ดึก

ตอนเย็นไปโบสถ์ ได้เล่น roller skate เป็นครั้งแรก ล้มหัวโขกพื้นเลย เจ็บอะ แต่สนุกดี เล่นไปเล่นมาก็เริ่มเดินได้ เสร็จแล้วก็ตามธรรมเนียม กินต่อ...

พอกินเสร็จก็เล่นก็เล่นเกมต่อ เขาเรียกว่า Killer คือ ถ้าใครได้ไพ่ Ace of spade ก็เป็น Killer แล้วก็จะแอบขยิบตาให้คนอื่นในวง ถ้าใครถูกขยิบตาให้จะตาย แล้วก็ต้องบอกว่า I'm dead แล้วก็หงายไพ่ โดยห้ามบอกว่าใครขยิบตา คนอื่นๆ ก็จะต้องทายว่าใครเป็น Killer สนุกดีเหมือนกัน อิอิ

ง่วงละ ไปนอนดีกว่า

Day 34...Apartment Hunting (The End) and The Big Spender

ในที่สุด เราก็ได้ที่ซุกหัวแล้ว...เย้!
สุดท้ายก็เลือกอยู่ที่เดียวกับมนกับเอก อยู่ใต้ห้องสองคนนี้พอดีเลย ถ้าพวกนี้วิ่งเล่นอยู่ข้างบนละก็ เสียงตึงตังลงมาถึงข้างล่างแน่ๆ

วันนี้ทำสัญญาไปแล้ว 4 เดือน เดือนละ $485 จ่ายเดือนแรก รวม deposit ไป รวม $970

แล้ววันนี้ก็จ่ายค่าเรียนเดือนหน้าอีก $1615 (รวมประกัน และ meterial) แพงโคตะระ...ขนหน้าแข้งร่วงกราว เลือดออกซิบๆ

วันนี้อีกเหมือนกัน เป็นวันสอบไล่ เลื่อน level แล้วก็จะจบ course แรก ข้อสอบยากพอดูเลยแหละ แต่ก็ยังไม่เท่า TOEFL หรอก

แล้วตอนเย็นก็มีกิน เหมือน party ปิด course ของ ELS อะ...งานนี้กินฟรีครับท่าน ELS จ่าย (แน่ดิ ก็เก็บไปเยอะแล้วนี่หว่า)
และเช่นเดิม เพื่อนถ่ายรูปไว้ ถ้ามันส่งมาแล้วจะเอามาแปะให้ดูนิ