The World, Engineered

James McGill still going strong…and holding onto his hat for dear life…

The snow covered streets on campus…

I think i’m going about crazy on this snow stuff…the rational side of me says its just frozen rain anyway…but the other side of me still gets so incredibly happy and cheerful when it starts snowing outside…

Case in point: Today was quite a crappy day as I had just messed up my lab test by drawing the wrong conclusion (stupid second-order low-pass filters masquerading as resonant band-pass filters!!) so I was feeling pretty down. I felt totally demotivated to study tonight and just kept thinking about the stupid mistake…The thing was, I didn’t realize it had started snowing outside but once i stepped out, i was pleasantly surprised by the snow flakes lightly fluttering down around me, coating everything in a thin sheen of white…The sight instantly brought a smile to my face and all my sorrows/worries/disappointments disappeared…Now how’s that for cheering me up? Lol…

Finally, hell week has passed and i’m left with 1 exam…and a computing exam to boot…so shouldn’t be a big deal…It’s still 6 days away so i can take it easy for now…haha…So far all my exams seemed to have gone relatively well, except for my fundamentals of electrical engineering, which i’m slightly concerned about but i guess the results will get curved so hopefully i’ll do fine…

Time to pack up my room now as i’ve left it in a mess for the past 2 wks, just concentrating on my studying. I didn’t even cook and just microwaved frozen food or ate out. Very unhealthy lifestyle…the only plus was that i was sleeping early and waking up early…which is not something i usually do, and which i quickly reverted back to normal now that most of my exams have finished…

The weather these 2 days have been fantastic! Just in time after my exams to enjoy it! Can’t believe that just 3 days ago, a snowstorm had just passed. There’s still lumps of snow sitting by the roadside, slowly melting. It’s a balmy 10+ degrees now and finally i can start walking outside in short sleeves…first time i’ve done so since arriving in Canada. Now that i’ve been wearing long sleeves so much, walking outside in nothing more then a short sleeved shirt makes me feel kind of naked…But then again, there are guys walking around topless here…haha…

Zzzzz…when will the snow end? I feel like spring is not even here and summer is supposed to be ard the corner…looking at the snow all around now, i can’t imagine temperatures hitting the high 30s here…haha…

2 wks till the end of exams…

The weather has gone all wonky…It’s April and spring has long arrived. But just as i thought i’m safe from the cold, the temperature suddenly dips today and it starts snowing again. And it’s not any light snow, but a rather heavy storm! Talk about strange weather! Looking out of my window, it seems like winter had never left…Tomorrow is time to break out the snow shovels again!

…you start seeing patches of grass showing through the snow.

…birds start flying around and making chirping / squawking noises.

…the school puts away the snow shovels and start tending to the grass.

…you go to school without wearing additional layers of clothing.

Well i was hoping for snow and now it’s snowing really heavily. Don’t know if it is considered a blizzard yet though coz I haven’t experienced one before. But to me, it really is one of the heaviest snowfalls i’ve experienced here. When I turn in the direction of where the wind is blowing from, I immediately get a faceful of snow. Time to take out my waterproof snow boots.

I’ve still not gotten used to the fact that I have to check the weather forecast before going out so that i’ll know what temperature the day will be like, coz in Singapore there wasn’t much of a need to. But over here, more then once i had to come back home to wear an additional layer or leave on layer at home. Probably I’ll be able to judge better as time goes by.

I also have to get used to taking of a layer or two of clothing whenever i go indoors just because it’s so warm inside. So like whenever I enter a classroom or lecture hall, I’ll be busy removing my jacket and trying to get the big fat jacket to behave.

Also, condensation on my glasses happens to other way round as compared to Singapore! Back in Singapore, I get condensation on my glasses when I leave an air-conditioned building. But over here, my glasses fog up everytime i step into a building.

Basically that’s just some of the things I have to get used to due to the changes in the weather between here and back in Singapore. There’s still tonnes of other stuff that i have to adjust to, especially like that cultural differences and such. But that would probably belong to another post at some other time.

It’s just that i’ve been really busy. So here’s just a quick update:

First week of school was hectic to say the least. Spent most of my time getting from place to place trying to get my admin stuff settled. Lessons are still ok since they have just started. There’s still no snow though. It was so warm I could wear a thin windbreaker to school last week. Today the temperature just dipped to -10 degrees in a day. So the weather is weird. I have a headache. It is late. I have to go sleep. I have early lessons tomorrow. Sorry for the short post. I hope I can find time to update this week.

I’m accessing the internet from Starbucks using my laptop now as I have no internet access from my room yet.

Anyway, i got m first glimpse of snow on Boxing Day, on my way over from Toronto. The temperature’s been steadily dropping now and is currently past -10 degrees Celsius. The weather forecast now will seem foreign to any Singaporean accustomed to only two modes of weather, “rain” or “shine”. There’s terms like “snow flurries”, “freezing rain”, “wind chill”, etc. Each of which sounds just as cold as the other. After the snow started on Boxing Day, weather forecasters have been saying that “the snow is finally here!”.

However, the evidence of climate change is undeniable now. Two days back, there was this report about a big ice shelf that broke off in the north of Canada near the North Pole due to global climate change.

On a happier note, I’ve been wandering around downtown Montreal checking out the area and getting familiar with the city, finding out places to buy stuff and to eat. The only problem is that it’s very troublesome to take photos now that it’s so cold. My gloved fingers are simply too clumsy to operate the camera and not using gloves will cause my fingers to start feeling numb in about half a minute.

I also went to visit Ottawa, the state capital of Canada, as well as Quebec City, further up north of Montreal. I’ll try to post some photos of my visit as soon as possible on my photoblog.

As I don’t know when’s the next time i’ll be coming online again, I’ll just like to wish everyone reading a Happy New Year! May all your new year resolutions come true! Haha…