It is so cold.

The weather here is killing me. One day it goes up to like 80 degrees and the next day is like 50 degrees with rain. I never know what to predict. I check the weather forecast but it is never always right.

I know it's Saturday morning. I know it's 7am in the morning here. I have no idea why I woke up so early aside of the fact that I'm going to IKEA. Am I really that excited about going to IKEA? I think not. I don't know. It's about an hour and a half away from here, so it's quite a trip.

Since I'm already up, I decided to fill you guys in on nice little things called "grad-school" social phenomenon. There are 31 of us, so there naturally will be little "clicks" although most of us seem to be nice to each other face-to-face. What I find weird is that I've already heard about each other's crap fro various people behind each other's back. These people are getting PhD...so, I find that kind of weird.

So far, I've been pretty close with Christine, Kristof, Toni, Kins, Henning, Joe, Brent, and Kathleen. The first five of them are from the Germany. Christine is the only girl and she's dating Toni. She's really cool and I've come to hang out with her more than anybody else for now. Toni is really sweet, kind of quiet, but seems very smart. Kristof is this guy I thought he was gay because he dresses super nice and looks really good. Apparently he's not, and now I feel bad about thinking that, because he is really good looking. Kins is this super smart guy "theoretically" but sort of the genius guy and kind of weird. He sort of reminds me of Roman, except he doesn't talk as much. But then come to think of it, I guess Roman never really talked to me. Henning is this tall guy with long hair. Joe, Brent, and Kathleen live together in a town called northampton about 15-20 minutes away from Amherst. Joe is from New Jersey and Brent is from Colorado. They seem to be a partner in crime, and they are really funny together. Kathleen is from MIT and she's really down to earth and cool. She likes musicals and singing, so it's pretty fun to talk to her about that. I went to see a movie with all of them plus this girl named Katrina yesterday (minus Kins) and I had a lot of fun. Katrina is this girl with very pretty eyes. I haven't really hung out with her enough to know what she's like but she seems really sweet. Maybe she's a little bit shy. We saw "shoot 'em Up". The movie wasn't too great, especially because there are a LOT of carrots in it (Brent kept laughing at me and telling me that I'm going to be screwed up after this because there were so many carrots in the movie). If you are confused, go watch the movie. You will see why.

As for the rest of the crew, I could name them all but I'm scared that someone will find this blog like last time *cough cough* and somehow start a bitch fest, so I'm going to stop here. There's really no one that I don't like though. There are people that I'm trying to stay away because of various reasons, or people are staying away from me because of various reasons? lol I also befriended a chinese girl named Pei-Wen and Jun. Since they live in my apartment complex, I see them a lot. Pei-Wen actually showed me where the chinese grocery is, so I don't have to starve. yay. The problem is, even I have a hard time understanding their english. No wonder everyone has their own "clicks" because it's really hard to undrestand each other's english sometimes. Most of the time, I'm okay understanding the Germans and the chinese speaking english, but I have a hard time understanding people from Turkey or India. I'm getting used to it, but sometimes I have to second-guess myself and you know I'm not good at guessing what I heard. There were a couple of times that I wanted to burst out laughing because I had no idea what they said and my understanding of the sentence was so funny that I couldn't contain myself.

Today, I think I'm going to IKEA with Joe, come back, and have fun with Kathleen and Christine? Katrina is having a cranium night, but Christine wasn't so sure if she wanted to go because she's worried that her English isn't great. I told her it's not like mine is much better but she's convinced that she wouldn't be good at the game. The guys (Germans+Brent+Joe) are having a guy's night out, so we were going to do girl's night out. We'll see what we're going to do later in the night.

So yes, I am having fun here. But of course, I miss all of you guys dearly. I wish I were back in California, because that's definitely my safety corner for me. Maybe I will see you guys during christmas break? I'm not so sure. I guess Anna and Mel will probably in the bay area, but what about Liang and Linli? Are you guys coming back to the bay area or leaving to somewhere else?