Still resting..

3rd day back from Mt Fuji..

Feeling much better today... I could walk with just minimum discomfort... went to the 99yen shop for groceries today.. it was a 1.5km walk I think.. Been in bed for the past few days.. either surfing the Net or watching CSI.. finished watching CSI season 3 yesterday and started on season 4 this morning..

My right knee felt better.. but the bruises make it looked worst with all the blue blacks spreading out.. but all in all, my body has recovered almost 70%.. Should be hundred percent 'operational' by next Monday... :D

2 days after...

When I reached my dorm on 25 Jul around 6:30pm, the only thing on my mind was to get a bath and rest my over-worked body.. After the bath, I felt slightly more refreshed.. I took out the dirty laundries and air the backpack.. I even took a picture of my bruised right knee..


Took some panadol (aspirin) and some vitamin C. My body was very tired, but somehow my mind wasn't about to go to sleep.. I sort-of just lied on my back, with my legs raised and supported by the futon and stoned-out.. I managed to doze off and fell asleep after a while...

The next day (26th Jul), I woke up, my body felt like it wasn't mine anymore.. Both my legs ached so much that I couldn't even turn my body!! :# Never felt so much pain in my lower limps in my whole life.. I practically had to drag my legs up one by one to get up. I had to push myself up to just stand up.. I need hold onto the walls to make my way to the toilet.. And not to mention, what an agony it was to sit on the toilet bowl and to get back up on my feet... There was no way I could go out to buy food.. Luckily, I had stocked up my fridge and there are enough food for 3 days, even if I can't go out..


Today, which is the 2nd day after the trip, the aching has sort of subsided.. My lower limps are still sored and aching, but compared to yesterday, I felt much much better.. Although the bruises on the right knee looked worst than yesterday, I can bend it without much pain... My calves still hurt but it's manageable now.. This morning I went out to the nearby convenient store to get myself a bento and some bread.. Did my laundries too.. Another 2 more days, I should be able to function as normal.. :p

This trip to Mt Fuji has made me learned more about myself.. I was surprised that I was able to command my body to work beyond it's limit.. On the way down, my body wanted to give up, but my mind wouldnt allow it.. 从没想过自己的意志力还算蛮强的，可以一直主导着已经疲惫不堪的身体，特别是双腿，不断地忍着酸痛及疼痛下山。。所谓Mind over Matter，这句话我现在才真正了解并体会到， 原来人的念力和意志力是份多么深不可测的力量啊！

Conquering Mt Fuji...

How could one be in Japan and yet not climb Mt Fuji?? That was the motivation for me to want to attempt Mt Fuji.. There is an old saying about Mt Fuji, "If you never climb Mt Fuji, you are a fool, and if you climb it more than once, you are a fool", which after climbing Mt Fuji, I couldn't agree more... :D

Every year, Mount Fuji is officially open for public from 01 July to 27 August. That is due to the unpredictable weather on top of the mountain and also to the fact that the submit is at its warmest during summer. Since my classes ends on the 20 Jul, I thought it would be good to go climbing the week after that, and also to beat the peak period of Aug..


After doing some research on the Net, I found out that most people will start climbing Mt Fuji in the evening and make their way up in time to see that sunrise.. The easiest and most popular route will be to start from Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）. I told my classmates of my intention and in the end, everyone wanted to climb Mt Fuji.. So the group consists of 6 guys (Oo-san, Shin-san, Liu-san, Song-san, Chua-san and Alex-san) and 3 gals (Kim-chan, Raila-chan and me).. Oo-san went to get the tickets for all of us at the Shinjuku Express Bus Terminal. One way to the Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）cost 2,600yen. Thus, to and fro tickets cost each of us 5,200yen..

The date we chose to make the attempt is 24 Jul. We planned to take our time climbing the mountain and enjoy the sceneries. So instead of the usual 6 hours ascend, we decided to stretch it to almost 10 hours.. Before the trip, I was worried about the weather, as rain or strong wind could either stopped us from reaching the top or make the climb much more difficult than it already is.. Luckily, the weather was on our side.. :)

In order to record clearly the progress made, I will break this attempt into segments for better narrations...

24 July, before 9am
Woke up before 7.30am.. Couldn't really sleep well, as I was thinking about all the possible scenarios that could happen along the climb.. Took a bath and did a final check on the things I was going to bring along.. Jackets and extra shirts among other things.. Brought along several boxes of chocolates and some bread.. Wanted to bring 2 litres of water but the bag was already quite heavy with all the clothes and food, so I've decided to buy water along the way up..

24 July, 9am-11am
Met up with Chua-san and we left the dorm at 9am. He wanted to get some hiking equipments and some food. Since he knew the location of the bus station, I decided to follow him.. Took the train to Shinjuku and got out at the West Exit. We reached the bus station around 9:40am. The hiking store was not opened yet. We went into one of the convenient stores and bought some breakfast.. We then went back to the bus station and waited for the rest to arrive. Soon, everyone arrived at the bus station, except Raila-chan. It was almost 10:45am and yet still no sign of her.. Then she called Alex-san's handphone and started asking for directions to the bus station.. After some frantic directing, I managed to guide her to the bus station and we all made it to the 10:55am bus to Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）. 老实说，对于这种态度我非常不认同。既然知道自己对车站的位置不清楚，那么就应该提早到达，而不是让其他早到的人担心或令大家赶不上巴士。。还好大伙都顺利地搭上了巴士。


24 July, 11am - 2pm
The journey to Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）took about 2.5 hours. Seating arrangement: Song-san = Kim-chan, Chuan-san = Liu-san, Shin-san = Raila-chan, Oo-san sat with a stranger. I was seated beside Alex-san and we talked a lot along the way.. However, as Raila-chan has motion sickness (which we only knew about at that moment), she took the seat at the front of the bus.. Most of the guys were asleep.. We reached Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）around 1:30pm.. We took lots of photos there... There are 4 big buildings, which are all selling souvenirs, food, drinks, walking sticks (called kongou-tue,金剛杖), oxygen cans, head-lights, etc. All their 2nd floor are restaurants.. The temperature at Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）is around 14 degree.


24 July, 2pm - 4:30pm
We decided to have lunch at one of the restaurants.. The prices are at least 50% more expensive but we don't have much of a choice.. I had a large bowl of beef bowl for 900yen. After eating, we went to look for a place to rest before making our way up.. We found some trees behind a shrine with stone tables and benches.. Oo-san went to take a short nap while the rest just chatted.. I went looking around the shrine, took some pictures and made some wishes.. :) I prayed for good weather and a smooth climb for everyone.. As everyone is feeling restless and ever-so-eager to start our conquest, we decided to start climbing at 4:30pm..


24 July, 4:30pm - 5pm
And so here we go!! The starting point for Kawaguchiko's 5th Station (河口湖の五合目）. There are horse rides available to take climbers up to the 7th Station, but it is quite expensive, at 12,000yen! The horses looked tired and weary.. and not to mention, fat! Maybe it's the climate that made them store more fats than the usual horses at the lower grounds.. I bought myself a walking stick (金剛杖) which cost 1,000yen. It has a blue ribbon and 2 bells. I took the bells and ribbon off cos the ringing of the bells was driving me nuts.. I planned to get a stamp at every hut/station that we pass-by.. although each stamp will cost me 200yen, I would still want to do it as a memento of my Mt Fuji trip.. :)


24 July, 5pm - 6pm
Maybe it was the adrenalin rush, everyone was walking fast.. We reached the 6th Station in about 30mins!! We were at least 20mins faster!! No one stopped at the 6th Station for a rest.. I kept asking everyone to slow down.. But the folks in front just kept walking.. Everyone seems to have forgotten that we wanted to enjoy the scenery and took more pictures than to just kept walking.. Everyone seems like to be racing, either against each other or against the time.. That's the feeling I have.. Between 5th and 6th Station, we can walk or hike.. From the 6th Station, the road up start to become steeper. As the air becomes thinner, each step become more difficult but still manageable..


24 July, 6pm - 9pm
Finally we reached the 7th Station slightly after 6pm.. By this time, the group has split into 2.. Oo-san, Chua-san, Kim-chan and Raila-chan was way in-front of us.. He 2nd group consists of Shin-san, Song-san, Liu-san, Alex-san and me. The 5 of us decided not to rush and take our time to ascend. We even had a bowl of Niku-Udon at one of the huts.. The sky is getting darker, but the scenery was still as beautiful.. Sometimes, we were among the clouds, sometimes we were above the clouds.. I was beginning to feel tired.. thus the constant resting between climbs was a good thing for me.. There are huts along the path, maybe every 50m or so.. The climb between huts has turned into a hand-and-leg affair. We can no longer walk.. We have to use our hands to pull ourselves up using the chains along the way. The 金剛杖 was really very helpful for me to push myself up.. Also, I had put a couple of stamps onto it..


24 July, 9pm - 12:30am
From 7th Station to 8th Station, we took about 3 hours. Normally people will take 2 hours to do that.. But all the constant resting and taking pictures really did help.. By the time we reached the 8th Station, the first group of 4 has already been there waiting for us for almost an hour.. According to Oo-san, Raila-chan almost gave up at the 7th Station, and he had to go back down to get her.. That's when he sprained his left ankle. It will take us about 3 hours to get to the submit from the 8th Station, thus everyone decided to take a longer rest at this Station. When I reached the 8th Station, the 2 shirts that I was wearing were soaked and I had to change out of them, else I will definitely get sick.. I changed into the only dry shirt left but I was still feeling very cold as the wind at the 8th Station was strong and very chilly. Luckily, Alex-san was kind enough to lent me his sweater.. (ありがとう Alex-san). There were lots of groups that passed us by at the 8th Station.. Many more were coming up.. Some of those groups who had reached earlier and had rested at the Huts are beginning to make their way up to the submit..


25 July, 12:30am - 2:30am
From the 8th Station, that's where the main torture starts.. I practically had to use my hands to pull myself up.. and with one hand holding the torchlight was not making things easier.. I should have bought a head-light which will free my hands to do more climbing.. but well, like the HK people like to say,"有早知，就没乞丐", which roughly can be translated to "If everyone has the benefit of hindsights, then there will not be any beggars left in the world".. But the one thing that I was glad that I did was to make the climb at my own pace.. I didn't really forced myself much. I just took my time making the ascend.. I let whomever that was behind me to pass in front of me so that I wouldn't felt pressured to quicken my pace. Step-by-step, I climbed... At around 1:20am, we made it up to the 3,250m.. We were getting nearer to the submit.. 在这时，队里其他两位女生已经快哭出来了。。 她们很想放弃。。而这时辛-san 也开始感到不舒服，头痛，气喘，胸口闷等疑是高山症的症状开始出现。所以大伙决定向下一站迈进，然后再决定如何。。毕竟每个人的体质不同，可承受的耐度有别，不可以拿来比较。

25 July, 2:30am - 4:05am
When we reached the 9th Station, we decided to stop Shin-san from continuing the climb up. He was having chest pain and headache.. We told him to wait for us at the 9th Station so we can come back for him on our way down. As the crowded is getting bigger, we decided to make the final march up the submit after a 10-min rest. The last segment of the climb was the most difficult and horrible. It was difficult because of the gradient and the length of the climb. Everyone had to hike/climb up for more than 1.5 hours for that 400m ascend.. It felt so near yet so far.. Add to that was the fact that the sunrise was only less than 2 hours away, everyone was eager to get to the submit to watch it.. Because of that, everyone start to cut into everyone's path.. imagine on a narrow path, where both sides are steep and rocky, any misstep will caused one to plunge hundreds if not thousands of meters down, people are cutting into each others' path.. All the politeness was nowhere to be seen there.. Everyone was pushing and jostling their way up.

Because of the difference in speed and fitness level, the group was once again separated.. Oo-san was with Raila-chan and Kim-chan, Liu-san and Song-san was with 2 Chinese girls they met along the hike, Alex-san and Chua-san was on their own, and so was I. I made my way slowly up the mountain, stopping and resting whenever I felt tired.. I wasn't competing with anyone except myself.. It was a real test of endurance for me.. The air was thin, my body was aching, my right knee was hurting.. Slowly but surely, meters after meters, finally I made it to the submit 5 minutes after 4am, alone..


Immediately, I went into the Asama Shrine to get my final stamp on my walking stick.. Paid 300yen for it.. Didn't really mind the price now.. Then I made my way to the hill on top of the submit to get a place to view the sunrise.. The wind up there was freaking cold but I didn't really care anymore.. I just wanted to get some photos of the sunrise that I have very much earned it, with my blood and sweat.. Found a stone where I could sit down and sat there to wait for the sunrise.. According to one of the hut owners we met along the way, the sun was supposed to rise around 4:28am.. So everyone up at the submit are looking for a good location to capture the first sunlight..


25 July, 4:05am - 7am
Slowly the sun started to peep through the clouds.. People started to clap.. Think everyone was feeling happy that they finally made it in time to watch the sunrise.. Took more than 20 photos of the sunrise.. It was really very beautiful.. It was well-worth the effort/sweat/blood... Other than that, I was too numb to feel any other emotions.. I lost touch with the rest of the group.. I hoped, at that time, everyone in the group did manage to see the sunrise.. Everyone in the group earned it...



After watching the sunrise, I went around the shops/stalls to look for the group... I found Alex-san, then Song-san, Liu-san and finally Chua-san.. Seems like only 5 out of the 9 group members made it to the submit.. We bought a can of hot cocoa (400yen for 30ml) and went into one of the shops to escape from the hallowing wind.. There is a crater at the higher point of the submit. I wanted to go the post office at the other end of the crater.. Based on the (wrong) information I've gotten from the internet, the post office opens at 8am (but in actual fact, the post office is open from 6am). So we need to kill time.. Everyone was tired and cold.. we just 'hide' at one of the shops and tried to sleep to pass time.. Song-san and Liu-san wasn't very keen on the Post Office trip, so they decided to go back down to the 9th Station to look for Shin-san and descent down the mountain slowly..

25 July, 7am - 9am
In the end, there was 3 of us left at the submit.. Agonizingly, we managed to wait until 7am.. We then slowly made our way to the other side of the crater.. I lead the way.. Chua-san was having a bad headache.. so was Alex-san.. think maybe the air or altitude is beginning to get to them.. As for me, surprisingly, I felt okay, no headache or whatever, except for muscle-ache on both my calves and my right knee's bruises..


After walking for 30min, we finally reached the post office.. I posted a couple of letters and bought a postcard (200yen) with the postal stamp of the Mt Fuji's post office.. The postage for sending letters remains the same, which came as a surprise, as almost everything on Mt Fuji cost at least 50% more.. Well, I'm not complaining... We wanted to take the other way back to the stops/stalls, but upon seeing the steep gradient of it, we decided to make our way back the same way we came..

25 July, 9:20am - 12:30pm
Around 9:20am, we decided to start descending.. And boy, what a torture the descending paths were.. The descending paths were made up of gravel and sands.. It was a major torture to my knees and calves.. Every step that I made downwards, I was feeling sharp pain up my calves, especially my left calf. I have never felt so much pain before.. But what choice do I have? I can't stop now.. Whatever goes up must come down.. There is no other choice but to bite the bullet (the pain) and climb down that mountain.. Even if I need to crawl, I would have to crawl down that mountain.. Luckily, Alex-san and Chua-san was there to give me encouragement.. Alex-san even carried my bag for me the last few sections of the descend.. I was slowly limbing down.. meter-by-meter.. After more than 3 hours, we finally made it back to the 5th Station...

Met the rest of the group there... Seemed like Oo-san's sprain ankle had prevented him from reaching the submit.. Kim-chan too decided to give up, and Raila-chan accompanied the 2 of them.. Oo-san had to be carried down the mountain by stretchers, and had to pay 20,000yen for that... Liu-san and Song-san found Shin-san at the 9th Station and come down together.. Oo-san managed to get an earlier bus ticket and left first at 1pm.. then Kim-chan and Raila-chan left at 2pm with exchanged tickets while the rest of us took the original 3pm bus back to Shinjuku...

By the time the bus reached Shinjuku around 5:20pm, I could barely bend my left knee and my right knee felt sored beyond words.. I had to limp my way to the train station and all the way back to the dorm...

So that's the story behind my 1st (and most probably last) trip up Mt Fuji...

Click here for more Mt Fuji Photos taken by myself..

Busy Sunday..

Met up with my classmates this morning.. to discuss about our Kyoto trip.. but before that I had to meet up with Kuan to pass him some documents for Ah Big's visa application... Had to make my classmates wait for about 30 mins at Harajuku.. so :x..

There were 5 of us going to Kyoto, but Alex couldn't make it today as he already has prior appointment. So the 4 of us went to La Pausa in Harajuku to have our lunch and discussions.. Kim-chan and I had the pasta set while Raila-chan and Chua had pizza set.. We ordered some desserts too...

After some discussions, we decided to drop plan to go either Kobe or Osaka, as there are just not enough time to visit all the interesting places in Kyoto... Since we have already decided to go to Koka, the well-known Ninja town for at least 1 day, we had only 2.5 days left for Kyoto. And with the shrines and temples spread across Kyoto, there is no way we could manage to visit all those well-known temples and shrines if we were to go to Osaka or Kobe. Add to the fact that we do not want to rush and just take pictures like those tourists, so we would need more time for each location.. So roughly we had the consensus that our main aim is to visit as many interesting places in Kyoto as possible.. To make things more complicated, most of the places closes at 5pm.. so we have only from 9am to 5pm to make those visits, with the inclusions of all the traveling time..

After the lunch, the 3 of us gals went shopping.. :) Chua didnt join us... We went to GAP, a few shoe shops (as Raila-chan wanted to get a pair of new shoes), souvenir shop, United Colors of Benetton, etc.. I bought myself 2 blouses, which cost less than 3000yen in total.. but seriously it's very difficult to buy clothes here... either they are too whacky/outrageous for my liking or all the sizes are in S, XS, XXS or XXXS!!! :o Think I would either need to: 1. 'import' clothings from Msia/Spore, or 2. slim down... but even if I do slim down, I wont be able to fit in most of the clothes here... unless I go down at least 2-3 sizes... which is highly impossible.. :D Maybe I could get the guys' clothes instead.. cos the guys' clothings are very stylish and very 中性, so I can wear them.. ;)

Tomorrow, I think I will stay in my room.. and rest.. cos on Tuesday I will be climbing Mt Fuji with my classmates... :) Hope I wont be too dead-tired after that.. :p

Good news!!

Good News!! :) :) :)

I've passed my Masters Entrance Presentation Exams!!! Saw the result on the notice board today at my grad school.. Now I can officially call myself a Masters student from this September onwards.. :)

Then there was another good news.. My whole Nihongo 1A classmates are going to level 3 next semester without having to go through the placement exams!! Yippee!! :p However, one blemish on this good-news day is that the class will not be able to stay together next semester.. Alex, Chua, Kim and me will be going to 3E/3F classes, while the rest of them will be going to 3A... :(

Hopefully, there will be a way to study together...

Earthquake Day!

Today is a public holiday for Japan. It's their Marine Day. Didn't go out at all although the weather is quite good, especially in the morning..

I was in my room reading.. reading an alternative Harry Porter book written by a fan. It was called Harry Porter and the Veil of Mystery, 1185 pages. I must say it was really very well written. The character developments was very well-round and well thought-off.. Can't wait to read the other 2 book written by the same author.. :)

As the book is in pdf format, I had no choice but to read it off my laptop. And boy, what a strain it is on my eyes... Add to the fact that I felt the most occurrences of earthquakes within a day. There was a rather massive one around 10:10am which lasted more than 15 seconds.. Then there were quite a number of aftershocks throughout the day... sometimes I couldn't decide if it's me having headaches due to the hours of staring of laptop monitor or it was really an aftershock...

Just checked the Japan Meteorological Agency's website.. seems like there were more than 40+ aftershocks all over Japan!! My goodness... :# Think I better sleep early tonight.. can feel that a massive headache is coming...

First Typhoon..

It has been raining non-stop for the past 24 hours.. Tokyo is expected to be hit by Typhoon Man-yi either tomorrow or Monday. Luckily there will not be any classes on Monday, as it is a public holiday in Japan.



According to news reports, Typhoon Man-yi has been classified as category-2 typhoon instead of its initial category-4 status after it has landed in Okinawa before heading to Kyushu and Shikoku..

Don't plan to go out the next two days.. The rain is making me feel slightly depressive.. but it's ok, not that I like going out and I can also do lots of things in my room, like watching dramas (Japanese, English, HK or Taiwanese ;) ), surfing the net, writing my blog and of course, doing revisions on my Japanese... Just that the weather is making sleepy most of the time... :p

Public Holidays and Summer Holidays...

This coming Monday is a public holiday, called Marine Day. And my semester will end this coming Friday. After 20 Jul, I will have almost 9 weeks of summer holidays!! YIPPEE!! :D

Have already made plans to go Mt Fuji and Kyoto with my classmates..

Will be climbing Mt. Fuji on the 24 Jul. 9 of my 10-classmates are going for the climbing trip. We planned to go on the 24 Jul, climb Mt Fuji throughout the night, and reach the summit around 4 or 5 am to watch the sunrise. Then we will make our way back down on 25 Jul and go home right after that. We do not plan to stay overnight.. It will be a 10-11 hours hike up Mt Fuji and then a 6 hours-walk down.. Hopefully I can still walk the next day.. :p

As for the Kyoto trip, there are 5 of us going, 2 guys and 3 gals. We will go to Kyoto by the Shinkansen on the 4 Aug and will stay 3 nights there, before coming back on the 7 Aug. We went to the travel agency in Shinjuku to book the train tickets and make hotel reservations. We paid less than 30,000yen for both the transport and lodging, which frankly is a real bargain price to me. The hotel we are staying is very near to the Kyoto Train Station, about 2 minutes walk.

Very excited over the trips.. Will definitely take lots of photos to share them here in my blog... :)

Finally over... :)

Finally gone through the presentation...

I woke up pretty early today, around 8am.. couldn't get back to sleep.. so in the end, I watched 2 episodes of 爱上陶花园, which are episodes interviewing 阿妹 and 张艾嘉. These 2 women are some of the few women that I admire personally.. So it has a calming effect on me watching them talked about their fears and hopes with 陶子(陶晶莹). Drank some Milo and ate some biscuits for breakfast.. didnt really have much appetite although I do feel hungry..

Changed into the only suit that I brought over from Malaysia.. btw, the pants does feel looser.. :P Left my room around 11:10am.. I decided to walk to the Interview location, which is at the 29-5 Building.. I treated it as a leisure walk and was listening to some Chinese pop songs along the way. I reached the entrance exam location just after 12pm. From the list of candidates, I saw that my slot is at 1pm.. so I had to wait for almost 1 hour at the waiting room...

That waiting room is actually the student lounge which has shelves of books and magazines at the back. I sat down near a window and try to rehearse (in my head) the 'script' that I would give during the presentation exam. There are thousand and one possible questions (by the Professors) going through my mind at that time.. and it was making me nervous.. but in the end, I told myself to stop thinking.. no point stressing out last minute.. what could be the worst case scenario? Not getting into the graduate school? Well, I could accept that.. So I sort of blasted the songs using my iRiver mp3 player.. through my headphones of course.. There were 2 other guys waiting too..

At last, the time has come.. I was told to go to Room 222 in Building 29-7. There are 6 Professors in the room, including Prof Obi. I started rather nervously in the beginning.. but my nerves calmed down after a couple of minutes. When the bell rang after the 5-min limit, I had only 1 more slides to go. My timing was good... I was beginning to feel a sense of relief.. 10 more minutes of Q&A and I would be done...

Prof. Obi asked me the first question during the Q&A. He asked why did I choose Japan and Waseda University in particular, instead of US, in view of my multi-language proficiencies and prestigious Alma Mater (the NUS). After that question, Prof. Obi asked what is my plan after graduation. Then he made a comment that compared to the monthly 170K yen that I am receiving from the Monbusho scholarship, I must be commanding a high salary in Singapore, why did I quit the job and come over? So far these questions are the ones that I had anticipated, partly thanks to Shinta and Michelle who gave me tips on the presentation exam. Then Prof. Kitamura asked me about the IT industry in Malaysia and Singapore. The last question was from Prof. Kano, about why do I think the people component is important in ITSM. I used one of the appendix slides to explain...

My overall feel is that I should pass the presentation entrance exam with flying colors, but again, anything could happen.. I have done the best I could in that circumstances/instance, so the final decision lies with the panel of Professors of GITS. But I must really thank Prof Obi, feels to me like he is leading and guiding the way for me during the Q&A session.. Arigatoo..

D-DAY...

Tomorrow I will have the entrance presentation exam for the graduate school I want to enroll at around 1pm...

The presentation slides have been completed and I have gone through it several times.. I'm not so nervous about the presentation.. but more of the questions that might be asked by the panel of professors... :#

On one hand, I know I have more advantages than most of the fresh graduates, ie more experience in attending interviews. Add to that, I have given a fair share of presentations to not feel (as) nervous.. But I have yet been to an academic-based interview.. Although it is going to be a 5-min presentation, followed by a 10-min Q&A, but I think it is going to be the longest 15-min for me these few years, and no, it wouldn't be the longest 15-min of my life :).....

Hopefully everything will go smoothly tomorrow.. 保佑！保佑！