| 2330hr
Mood: tired out Fact of the day: UIUC has the largest library system in the United States. event of the week party next saturday.
UIUC had a booth at the US education fair today, and since none of the other people are free, Priya and I were the booth-mistresses. I thought it would be a simple job of just waiting for people to come and take a glance at our displays. Perhaps say some useless things when they express an interest in UIUC. I was even prepared to play some games with Priya, to pass time. Man, I was so wrong. Instead, I spent the whole 4 hours on my feet, talking almost non-stop, giving out flyers and basically trying to entertain all those people who came to the booth. Sheesh, I'm so tired right now.
Actually I really did enjoy talking to those prospective students and their parents today. It felt good to be able to address their concerns about safety and the costs of the education. Though many of those who came were interested in life sciences, which isn't exactly UIUC's forte, I tried my best in telling them how comfortable I felt in UIUC. I guesss now that the engineering trend is on the decline, the Singaporean interest in UIUC should be lower as well. Hmm...but I guess I'm not too keen on building a mini-Singapore on campus, so it's not necessarily a bad thing that less people are coming.
The unfortunate thing about the adventures today is that although I talked to many people, there're specifically 2 people who took up too much of my time. One of them was this guy who wasn't even sure if he should study in the States or not, and half way through our conversation, I was even advising him about education in Australia! He's quite a candid guy, and rather interesting to talk to. But because of him, I didn't get to talk to some other people, and my friends around me all teased me about him, insisting that he's interested in me and that I was flirting with him. HA! I think he's in fact interested in this other friend of mine..hehe..
The other guy, was a total waste of my time. He wasn't interested in UIUC either...he just came along and started raving about how Singaporeans are too kiasu, too obsessed about titles and insisting that Americans are more easy-go-lucky and less concerned about studies. This really irritated me, because he spoke as if he's the one who's been studying in the States and he's telling me about the American students. Like huh?! He had no basis in his argument and he appeared more like a disgruntled local undergraduate who's not doing well... After saying how American students are nicer, he went on to say how America is messy and dangerous. Argh! You've not even left Singapore yet and you've already got so much bias about Singapore and America! I can't explain my exasperations, but he really got on my nerves the whole time he was talking to me.
Other than these little mishaps, the day has been rather smooth going. The turnout for the fair was excellent. I'm going to bed soon. I'm so damn tired, but I think today's one of the most constructives days I've had since I got back.
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