End of summer school... a new start

The feeling of the seniors leaving us so soon kinda makes me quite emo nowadays. It's like just yesterday when Peihiang and joshua met us at the airport and herded us to Philly but now, it's their turn to leave. The nostalgic memories of the time that batch 11 spent with us, just gushed back to my mind, as I enter this post. Someone said farewells are part and parcel of life, and make one more mature... I have to agree with that.. And it is not going to be the same anymore when I go back to office next Monday, alone and having no one around to look up to, having to stand on my own feet from now on. No more fooling around as someone else gonna look up to me, as a role model.

Summer school has ended but I felt as if it never begun. For one thing is that Prof Babin is right, it's a difficult class, not because of the course requirements, but cos no one can really focus and give off their best. The power of context which was a concept emphasized in class is so ironically true as the students influence each other, resulting in a less 'competitive' environment. Nevertheless, as much I would like to focus on energy and time on it, I know I have at least remembered most of the concepts taught in class. Like the power of stickiness and power of the few, from the book, The Tipping Point. It takes just such a little something to create a storm.
The part part of the course is where I could relate the concepts taught to the social networking industry, where my company resides.

Yesterday was US' independence day but I spent in a rather unconventional way. Went to the Woodbury premium outlets with Nadia and her Club SG friends. It was a gruesome 3hours away and by the time we reached, we exited the car like a bunch of kids that had been forced to sit for too long. Shopping was quite relaxing, as I mostly shopped for my customers, so it is kinda of guiltless. But I did get a 17usd white skirt from Armani(my fav brand!) and a 15usd top for my mummy from Espirit. Everything is so ridiculously affordable here. My friend, Cynthia, got a Fendi bag for $140! wow...

We returned to Philly at 1230 and headed to Target where I went to redeem my $10 gift card from Ebates.com. Bought my sunscreen (finally), cereal, bath towel (finally) and stuff... hahah the mart is so humongous! It's easy to get lost here.

The day trip ended with a bang when we went to eat dinner at an Indonesian cafe. We wolfed down fried chicken, curry, veg curry, satay and iced coffee... Yum!!

To commensurate Independence day, Nadia and I went to the Arts Museum. It was quite unexpectedly unentertaining as the artists performing are unknown to us, even John Legends. We left because of the rain, and ironically before the fireworks started, when it was the main reason that brought us here. Sigh hahah.... wat a tiring day!

Trail run at Fairmount!

I wished I joined the Fairmount runners on their Sat morning trail runs earlier! But my Fridays nights are usually filled with those stuff that resulted in a late sleep-in on Saturdays... Anyway, I will make it a point to go for Saturday trainings from now on.

At 8.20am (ungodly hour right?) Nadia and I met to take the septa subway to city hall, where we had to change to bus 33 to 20th Fairmount ave. I wasn't sure of the bus stop at first and approached the bus 32 conductor. But before I could speak to him, I stared in amazement when the lady in front of me planted a kiss on his skin. The thing I couldn't figure out is that she had paid for her bus fare so the kiss is definitely not for the sake of hitching a free ride. Anyway, the friendly driver gave me proper directions to the bus stop and within 5 mins from reaching the stop, bus 33 came along, much to our delight. The inconvenient problem with Philly is that 20th and Fairmount is actually rather close to where we live, in fact, we can run up to the place in 30 mins at a comfortable pace, but there are just no direct public transport route to the place.

Soon, we found ourselves near the Eastern State Pennetary, waiting for Bennett, my club president to arrive and fetch us to the hills at Fairmount to run. Accompanying us was Steve, the first club member I really got to know, since the time when we walked together to the pub for happy hour. He's working at the Upenn Alumni house so Nadia and I had quite a few topics to chat with him about. Sometimes, I think he's really kind-hearted and innocent compared to the other Americans I have come to know here. I wonder if he ever loses his temper before but I doubt. This kind of people are really suited for a job in the education and service industry I realize.

As we whizzed past the green scenery in Benett's car, I just stared in awe out of the window. There were many stone bridges which towered over us, hills that dwarfed those along the roadside of Macritchie reservoirs and the neverending stretch of the Schuylkill river. When we alighted, the sight of the entrance to the trail just reminded me so much of Macritchie Reservoir and the gush of memories to my head left me dizzy with nostalgia. We just started our stopwatch and lost ourselves among the greenaries.

But Macritchie can never be as hilly as where we ran. During the annual cross country race, there will be this steep slope before the route opens into the main road that everyone dreads. But here, there are an uncountable number of them. I wished I have at least gymmed for the past 5 days before coming here. However, the pace was comfortable and we had to slow down most of the time to avoid slipping down the muddy downhill sections and to land properly on the rocks as we ran along the face of the hill. One interesting thing about the trail is that instead of normal wooden bridges that span across the river, there were huge pipe like stone structures instead. One careless slip on it will just send one stumbling down into an abyss of stones and whatnots. But on the whole, I felt this great sense of accomplishment as we ran back into the carpark. At least the fattening food I have eaten over the last five days now have somewhere to escape. Steve sent us to the university area after Bennett dropped us off near the Arts museum. (see I said he's nice) Nadia and I indulged in a Dunkin Donuts' breakfast before heading off home.