travel – Page 7 – my personal timeline

italy – third day

the third day in italy started off with a classical italian breakfast in our lovely hotel. the breakfast was had on the side of a canal, on a cute table, with fantastic cappuccino and a lot of small pastries. (by a lot, i mean for italy – there were 2 or 3 of them. usually there is 1, maybe). the breakfast was a fantastic start – the sun was shining, the skies were blue, and moods were high. our plans for the day were simple and good: walk around venice for a couple of hours, have a small lunch in a hole-of-a-wall place (literally), and then head out and down to florence, where we would meet tim’s friend from cali, alex, and his sister lina, who were in italy travelling prior to their study semesters in london. it sounds like such a packed day, and it really didn’t feel like it. the beauty of vacations!

walking around venice was gorgeous. we absolutely didn’t follow any specific guides, other than having vague goals of finding the large bridge, seeing the large square, and having something to eat. otherwise, we stumbled around blindly into gorgeous alleyways, tiny dead end streets, and at times even no people. venice is indeed a gorgeous city, which doesn’t seem to be anywhere close to dying or sinking, despite the worries of some. a wonderful mix of tourist scams and incredible charm makes it a really strange beast – there are almost no “natives” living there any more, and yet somehow it feels incredibly authentic. perhaps it is a well oiled tourist money churning machine, but does not hurt at all.

the best experience of the day was food (as it was usually, with italy). while the sights were wonderful, the food was unique. via our wonderful tour book we found a tiny place that had tiny incredible sandwiches, really cheap prosecco (sparkling cold white wine) in large glasses, cozy benches outside. the space itself was literally a counter. there was no space for more than 3 people to stand near the counter. it was AWESOME! we still fondly regard it as the best lunchtime find in italy (well, i do, at least).

the large square surprised me with a load of birds. i lost pretty much all photographs from this day, except from what you see here – i think from starting lunchtime. which means a lot of wonderful vistas off the shore, the boat back to the hotel were lost… (i had some problems with the card. i can’t figure out if i recovered the photographs and can’t find them, or if i actually lost them. sucks, but oh well! as long as it is not everything.) since i can’t show pictures, and i kinda suck at describing, it was an awesome walk full of holding birds without paying for the bird food, wonderful sunlight, great views of the water, a lot of romantic mush, and generally a great time. plus a boat ride through the entire canal, during daylight (bus-boat, we did not waste money on a gondolier). charming!

on the large square, we ran into a russian man (with an asian wife), who could clearly handle birds. he just picked them up off the ground, and when he saw me taking a photo of his, he gave me one. except i suck at holding the birds, so it got away pretty fast. other highlights include pointing the camera at my own hand as birds continuously land and take off it.

on which note, this square, st marks i think, that was full of birds, was also full of tourists, of course. which mean that it was also full of pick pocketers. great fun at watching them slink around the crowd and slink away as soon as they make eye contact with you. i wish we had a little more time so we could watch them operate!

our trip to florence was an easy drive. we passed through a most incredible sunset view of the city; i’m half kicking myself for not taking a pictures, half realizing that it was out of the question – we were running late, and finding hotels after dark is not fun. the memory is stunning, though. the old florence, the large dome, all coated in golden light. you wouldn’t have believed the photograph anyway, perhaps!

the evening in florence was excellent – we had dinner with alex and lina, made plans for the next day, got drunk at a snobby place, and happily went home in a cab. i was getting sick, but thankfully my sickness was at its peak at this evening; i started getting better from this point on. from what i do remember i almost didn’t go out to dinner, but i was starving… good thing i went – the food was delicious, the conversation fun. tim tried the famous florence steak, which is basically an enormous slab of meat. not much to it!

maybe my descriptions aren’t that great, but i really really really love remembering this. thank goodness for a blog! gosh, i miss italy.

italy – second day, evening.

leftovers from verona:

the drive from verona to venice was remarkable only because we found a really cute soft cooler(tim really wanted one for some reason – i think we ended up using it, but mostly i’m happy that i have an awesome lunch bag).

the evening in venice was strange. we found the hotel easily; they upgraded our hotel room to the best one when i mentioned we were honeymooning. (it was a small b&b place). the view from the window was gorgeous:

and while tim was ok with drinking some wine and figuring out where we’ll eat, i went outside to take some photographs:

and right as i was taking those last few, the rain started pouring down. i ran back in (i was only like 3 minutes away from the hotel), and looked at the grey skies and lamented not taking a single jacket. damn.

after the rain ended it became better:

and we went out for dinner:

the dinner itself was the least tasty dinner; perhaps we did not appreciate the wine sauce enough.

after the dinner we messed up which boat we need to take back, froze a little bit, and got home. the end of day two!

italy – first day

this is slightly late, but why not.

our departure to our honeymoon was the day after the wedding, in the evening. thankfully we found a hotel that let us do a late check out – like 4pm. we seriously needed that time to sleep, so that was excellent.

walking out of the hotel holding my wedding dress in my hands felt somewhat surreal. i mean, that’s when it hits you that it really IS a non resuable-packaging :-)

the packing was easy. i knew what i wanted to take fairly in advance – i actually ended up under packing for the first time ever, as i didn’t take a rain jacket (and to spoil the surprise shocking ending, of course it rained for like 3 days). with our two small suitcase, dad, my aunt, zhen (tim’s friend from cali who was here for the wedding) and ourselves we headed to the airport. zhen went first – his flight was at 9. our was at 10, and we arrived pretty late. we actually were taken out of the line and ushered to the front because we were cutting it so close to our plane’s departure. :S but, it was all good – we got 2 seats next to eachother!

as it turned out, the 3rd seat was taken by the self proclaimed “congratulations, you’re sitting next to the biggest geek in the world” guy, who exclaimed that after seeing our wired magazine. he was flying to germany (the plane was to munich) for some conference on how computers affect daily life. except he couldn’t. stop. talking. for the entire flight. it would be hilarious and entertaining to watch such stupidity if it wasn’t so painful. (and he seriously wasn’t the biggest geek, i’m pretty positive i know at least 500 people geekier than him – and that’s u of t alone.)

anyway, that aside, the flight was easy. i slept some, tim – not really. our arrival was at 8am, and right away we saw the wonderful efficiency of the germans. NOT. the line into customs was a funnel of our entire plane to 2 agents. it was a free for all, more or less. one nice thing about the airport is that they gave our luggage back quickly (we packed for carryon but for some reason they said we can’t check them), and that you could smoke inside. go europe!

our car rental was upgraded for free (yay), the coffee in the airport was delicious, and soon we were on our way out of munich and into italy.

the drive was around 7 hours long, and i think i slept through most of it.

i need to run so i guess i’ll stop here. quickly: we arrived to verona, got lost, got found after an awesome conversation at a gas station in french and spanish and his italian, and tim slept. i went to the supermarket, which deserves some talking too. here are some snaps from prior to verona.

germany - drive church on the way out

munich - car first view of our car (we expected a crapbox!)

munich - car - me self portrait on the way out

munich - car - tim tim messing with the radio

munich - car - radio the radio he was messing with

verona - evening first evening in verona

germany - no speed limit no speed limit! (we had fun.)

no more free summers

this feels so strange. why are people expecting me to be so happy about being done? why are most people so happy about being done? maybe this is disappointing; but university was the best time of my life. while i’m sure there are many – endless – fantastic times ahead, this night is the end of something beautiful, and something unique.

i guess this is no different than any other night. each day, or night, or hell, each moment that we pass, passes without return. each moment is unique as we’ll never live it again. gosh, i remember realizing this when i was like 6, but i guess this is slightly more mature?

i wrote my last exam, ever, likely, outside of me taking post grad courses/degrees/whatever. it won’t be the same, though. i got to travel, i got to party, i got to slack off like never in my life. i have so many wonderful memories – all the travel, all the people i have met. i still have the note left on my door by a friend of mine in maastricht, on my last night – “just knock” – so that i say goodbye before leaving (at 4 am). i remember australia and missing tim. i remember starting university and feeling so overwhelmed by the size of the university. i remember classes of 300 people, and i remember classes of 5, and all that was in between. i remember assignments handed in the last minute, and assignments done weeks in advance – oh who am i kidding, there were no assignments done weeks in advance. they were all, or most done last night, last day, last hour, last minute, hell, i remember last second assignments. standing in front of the dropbox, completing a neat copy of a proof (as all copies had to be neat! but of course!).

5 years – did they really fly past so fast?

first year – calculus. all that i remember is calculus. okay, well, fine, i remember other courses – i remember taking 150 with k. reid, and feeling so happy that WOW there’s a female professor in an advanced CS class! things must not be that bad! haha. i remember archeology, my social science course (i don’t even know if i needed that course, but at least i’m sure i got my distribution requirements filled), with the midterm when the entire class showed up saying that “we didn’t get the book!” and the prof taught the midterm to us, and gave it to us the week after. a unique experience – no other course in u of t was nearly as gentle (no exam!). i remember suffering through introduction to cognitive science, disappointed that the prof that i wanted wasn’t teaching it. linguistics – made good friends there. and that’s all.

first summer – blackout; missed exam due to it; didn’t have to write it – got a good mark. thought i’m smart. hah…

second year – changes. changes in personal life; changes in marks. barely remember courses – but i remember getting back (paying for!) an exam, to check if they were right – how could have i have gotten such a “low” mark! apparently, i could. doubt i’ll do that again. remember crying on my first (and my last) exam, after being fooled by the prof on what i should’ve studied (i went to office hours the entire year, and she lead me down the garden path. i only knew one experiment that was asked, despite studying for many, many hours of review). i remember finding the exchange office.

third year – maastricht. got my credits. but more importantly, got my self confidence. met wonderful people, moved out on my own, partied like there was no tomorrow. realized that the shitty marks in u of t are not because i’m not trying – but because u of t is hard. without trying, getting As in most classes… what a boost… only to return to –
third year, second half – my only D, the class where i met tim. the class I should’ve dropped after getting 25% on the midterm, but didn’t. it was worth it – the class doesn’t matter at this point. i remember falling in-love, as i was falling into my australia plans.

summer, tim leaving.

fourth year, first half. finding my favouritest prof ever (maha can attest). suffering through a CS course, and getting 78, 80, and 81 in the other 3 courses. feeling good. (wow, i got more than 80 in two courses? in one semester? holy crap, i’m smart.)
second half. australia. not much to say here, except thanks for 336 and 384, UNSW (and oleg, who beat out these credits from CS department in U of T).

fifth year, the strange feeling that its all ending. first semester, blah. no great marks. sick during exams. no excuses. desperate for last nights of out; but everyone are focused on studying now. savouring the rare einstein and new ho outings. poker nights, redecoration, 2nd x-mas with tim’s parents, feeling it all just about slipping through my fingers!

and here we are

end of second half of fifth year.

last exam went perfect. pick 4 out of 6, pick 2 out of 3, and i knew all 9 questions offered. i’m happy. i yelled in the parking lot. and then i looked at the university college building and felt such strong nostalgia.

the time passed by faster than it took me to type this entry. i already miss it all. i’ll be ready for the wonderful, awesome future – but right now, i miss it preemptively, i miss it whole heartedly. it was the best time of my life, and i doubt i could have gotten a better experience in any way possible – cognitively, socially, or personally.

going through old pictures

it really took a while before i can look at photographs from new zealand and marvel that i actually saw that.

toronto to columbia, with some problems in between

my mom has told me that i am a very lucky person. i tend to believe that; even more with air travel, where my lucky stars have rarely failed me.

therefore, today i shall consider the payoff for all the great flying-karma i have gotten before. (and even then, i can see at least 5 things which went WELL, and could have went far-far worse).

upon arrival to toronto, it turned out that due to bad weather in chicago our flight has been delayed by 1hr 45min (i.e. departing at 4:45, instead of 3). mind you, we had a connecting flight, at 4, from chicago to columbia (which is about an hour and a half of driving from tim’s parents’ place).

here is where it went nicely – we randomly ran into oleg’s sister, who was flying out to san fran via same gate and a later flight. i imagine she was fine, as she had a direct flight to sunny cali, where as it was the rained in chicago and snowed in denver that caused the bulk of problems for 1000s of passengers today. she watched our bags while we figured out what we want to eat – which allowed us to pick a sit in place. we brought our bags with, and had decent nourishment for insane prices (if its in the airport, it must be expensive), which is great as it paid off later.

upon inquiry towards the powers to be about what is the state of affairs with regards to our flights, the response was a death-bored-stare and “everything in chicago is delayed. your flight is delayed too.” [so buzz off, i imagine is what they would say if they could]. we took those words, despite tim’s strong instincts to the contrary, and boarded the plane.

upon boarding, it turned out all the overhead cabins are full, and our little carryon suitcases had to be checked in. SUCKS! i repacked work laptop into my bag, grabbed my jacket, and sent my suitcase on its merry way to columbia. upon settling in, they announced that we will spend 2 hours waiting on the tarmac for take off. we pulled away, went through a safety demonstration, and then spent about 1.5 hrs chatting cellphones, reading from laptops, or napping as we simply waited for chicago to clear up.

i am tempted to use upon too often.

arrival to chicago was sudden – the land appeared about 2 seconds before we landed, that’s how bad the visibility was. unfortunately, our flight to columbia was cancelled. completely. for the day. the machine suggested we “stand by” (i.e. hope that there will be 2 empty seats for us) for a 12:15pm flight next day. mind you, the time was around 7pm at this point. not a happy prospect!

we did some running around (i am sick and tired of the chicago airport – it has one really pretty transfer and everything else is just boring), and with james’ (tim’s dad) help figured out that going to raleigh/durham airport would work (except, it is a 3 hour drive for them to pick us up…). there was a flight departing at 8:15, we found the gate, and were overwhelemed by insane amounts of people who were having difficulties.

united has 4 hubs: denver, chicago, washington and someplace else that i can’t remember.

denver got shut down completely due to 2 feet of snow (now we solved the mystery of where is all the canadian snow!). chicago got shut down for about 4 hours (that we were waiting in toronto – apparently some flights were 7 hours delayed, such as the one that flew in from raleigh and was going to fly back at 1 – but instead was flying back at 8).

imagine a network, that is heavily based on 4 hubs. shut down 2 major hubs (chicago and denver both seemed to have the most routes from the map). imagine the shutdown spreading through the network.

yeah.

people were crying (well, one girl, who honestly seemed more annoying even though i did feel bad for her), and stressed out, and frustrated, and yet most managed to keep a good cheer. i was impressed by how well the workers at the united terminal were working – cheerful, kind, apologetic for the delay and yet dignified. i am honestly impressed that some people actually seem to care about their work. (the toronto workers of united weren’t nearly as impressive, as they mostly seemed to want to get rid of us).

we waited through yet another line up (remember, at this point we have crossed between 2 terminals about 3 times, that’s 3 instances of taking shoes off, taking out 2 laptops, putting each one in a seperate plastic box, putting everything through the xray, putting everything back together. i bet i can do all this in my sleep now!), and got to the excellent people at the check in counter for 4 flights, including raleigh one. they put us on a waiting list (5th and 6th), and said “be back here at 9”. the time was 8:15.

fast forward through some more running around and going through security to get our suitcases. no suck luck. i’ll spoil this ending: we still don’t have them, they should be delivered to sumter tomorrow… all of my highly condenced packing has gone to waste! at least i have both my laptops, and my cameras with me!

thus, very lightly packed, we bought a sandwich, some drinks (last time we ate was at 1, in toronto – no flights this short serve meals – and this was 8:30pm). and then a magical, miraculous moment…

our names were called over the speakers

i felt like i won the lottery. my name! called out! THAT MEANT THEY HAD SPACE FOR US.

cue awesome moment: we got exit row seats. and even though we both were aisle, there was no one next to me, so i got window. it was gorgeous. spacious. calm. heaven! that’s what business class must feel like. except without the stress of feeling like you are responsible for rescuing people.

i bought wired beforehand, and spent most of the calm flight reading it. what an excellent journal!

right now we’re in raleigh. there’s att web here for $8usd/24 hours, and tim’s dad is supposed to be here in about 30 minutes. i decided against the money waste.

positive things about today:

my mom gave us a ride to the subway, and was able to pick up the presents that maha forgot at the bar!

i was able to pack LIGHT despite having to take a camera case, 2 laptops and clothes to last through 5c-20c weather. apparently in vain as i dont have them here…

since our bags got checked and never returned the travel and running around was nice and easy – tim kindly took my camera bag, and so i only had my little handbag with the laptops. what an excellent purchase, thank you mom and maha for convincing me! so, it was nice and light – easy to bounce around all the security, stairs and people that we had to navigate.

the sandwich we got in ORD was tasty.

the salad i got in YYZ was super tasty.

the wired this month was super interesting

all the flights themselves, after take off went pleasantly and easily (and quickly)

the only annoyance of the day was a guy (i am firmly convinced, russian, ~30y.o.) who cut an entire line of about 50-60 people, 70% of whom were heading to chicago, like us, on the 3pm (this is at 1:30, toronto). as he cut the entire line, someone asked him where is he hurrying and he said “chicago 3pm” and to my gread pride canadians stood up and forced him to wait it out. he still ended up standing at the head of the line for the next 30 minutes, but the amount of scoffs, arguments and very loud jokes and comments was so worth it. after going through that line up, tim and i were looking where to get a snack, and saw him cutting another line – for food!

james and chelsea picking us up despite the distance.

aaand apparently they are here! YAAAY we are free from the airport hell!

remember kids, don’t FLY THROUGH CHICAGO!

PS: updates: our suitcases are lost. we filed a form of “delayed baggage”, that was supposed to be delivered today with the 12pm flight, but, alas, they are lost. i am SHOCKED. this is my shocked face: :|

we’re almost there

well, we are in airlie beach, aka the area of whitsundays islands. can’t wait for our trip tomorrow, everything looks gorgeous.

we have safely made our way up the coast, with a large haul over 600~ kms from rockhampton to airlie beach yesterday. today, we’re just chilling in airlie – found wireless internet and so i bring you lots-a-photos!
sydney to brisbane (KOALA HOLDING IS HERE)
brisbane to fraser
fraser to day before yesterday (eurimbola national park or something like that)

australia is definitely looking more australian – we still haven’t seen any “real” big kangoroos, although hope is not yet lost. lots of wallabies by this point, which is really nice. on the drive to bunya mountains (it was on the drive that the above photograph was taken), we saw wallabies crossing the road, and when we woke up there was one right outside our door, munching on grass. snapshots are available on the first link.

queensland is supposedly famous for the red sand, which is also getting more common. i even got to hold a koala at this point! (as you might have read).

we tanned, i swam (in a lake, swimming in the ocean is too dangerous, there are small nuances like sharks and killer tides), and tomorrow more swimming shall be done at the reef!

highlights of the trip so far are:

our incredible obsession with beef jerky

an enroumous choice of amazing wines that all cost less than $9CAD

hangovers after consuming those enourmous choices ;)

wallabie roadkill. so weird!

our campervan is kick ass. we can live off the grid for 2 days, providing an external water supply for washing dishes.

on a particularly bumpy road, after wishing to take photographs of the passing views, my microdrive burping and deciding all my photos (400 images .. fraser island, and the park where we just spent 2 days) are not there anymore. thankfully, it was all restored by tim and checkdisk. why did i not copy, you ask? because my laptop battery without electricity only lasts ~30 minutes, and it takes about 30 minutes to copy a full card. we get electricity when we stay at campervan parks, so i do my copying, editing and charging up there. i also could charge on the road from the adaptor, but i usually only copy music to and from my mp3 player on the road.

we both got hooked on rumpole series. fun, awesome writing, very funny, and we managed to score all the books but one from another 2nd hand book shop for $5 plus exchange of our silly, have read, cheapass books. we saved like $12 there. the math is a bit fuzzy, but basically, we have a tonn of good read, (and even mediocre reading, i bought some junk reading ala king + grisham only scifi-ish, don’t remember the name), for cheap, or even profitable, and we are both getting a kick reading in the morning, evenings, beach, tanning, etc.

my mp3 player + tape deck adaptor + laptop every 3 hours to supply more music == fresh music so far! i’m afraid we’re starting to push the limits of my music collection though. i don’t think tim is a big fan of russian pop dance, which i ashamedly posses in large quantities, or the instrumental collections i got off my mom’s disks.

switching to rising at like 8-9am naturally after having spent 3 days in fraser rising at 6am daily

now, fraser is a seperate story. we have shared a 4×4 car with 9 other people, and spent 2 nights and 1 whole day (and half another day in start and half another day in the end) on this huge beach dune which has awesome fresh water lakes (freezing, but gorgeous), and generally a very awesome natural landscape. the downside of it being a sanddune and sharing one car with 11 people is that SAND. GETS. EVERYWHERE. those of you who know how picky i am about my camera’s cleanliness, will know that traces of sand inside my LENSCAP mean it literally was everywhere. i didn’t even switch lenses (shot sigma12-24 and mini canon) the entire time.
on that note i should have more photos off the canon tomorrow.
we have bought food together, bought meat from the butcher offered by the place (koala adventures), and bought cheap liquer. oh. my. god. we have not eaten worse meat and drank worse alcohol in AGES. it was so disgusting! and it was such a joy to get back to normal, great-wine, great-food, no-sand world afterwards! but even despite that, fraser was pretty fun. pretty, at least :D

hi mom!

out into the wild

im in the process of trying to upload photographs. cant remember my ftp password! grr

we are in brisbane, which is the last real large city before the “end” of our trip, in cairns, which is about 3 weeks away. isn’t that crazy?

we left on sunday afternoon, almost evening, and spent our first night at a rest stop on the side of the road. it is surprinsigly awesome, squatting. the van has a sink, a stove, a microwave (that operates only if we’re connected to a power supply), a fridge, and 2 benches + a table that fold into a bed. plus 2 shelves for storage, and storage underneath each bench. all in all, pretty damn spacious for 2 people. we still have to shuffle stuff around, but its not really all that painful.

we’ve bought around 11 or 12 books at a salvation army shop, each for around $2, $1 or $0.50. (total: $16). some of them turned out to be total garbage (same author as “i know what you did last summer” … finished it in about 4 hours, blergh), and some are totally sweet (“no, we don’t have neutrons”, about failures of science to be proper science). each evening we spend reading books and drinking wine until we fall asleep.

sleep is incredibly comfortable, especially given how i haven’t slept on a properly wide bed in like … AGES. i packed my pillows with us (will just throw them out in cairns before our flights), so we’re super comfy.

tonight we’re staying in a campervan park site, which is essentially is a huge parking lot, with plug points where we can get power (that way we’ve got electricity for laptops, and microwave power), and water points for refilling our water tank. there is no sewage system as its only a sink that we have, meaning that whenever we use the sink there’s a tiny puddle that forms underneath the van. everyone seems to be pretty used to that thought!

our initial plan today was to go to brisbane downtown, but i felt incredibly tired and weary after sleeping poorly last night (shows me to not think of water supply in advance… i got thirsty and all we had was coke, so i slept terribly due to all the sugar and such in my system). good go too, it started raining 10 minutes after we parked.

the campvervan site has internet, unfortunately as it turns out only one computer can log in, and once you’re logged in another computer can’t log in, even if you are logged out. since tim logged in first, he has internet, and i’m stuck with copying pictures over usb key.

regardless of that inconvinience, life is awesometastic. australia turns out to be an incredibly pretty place, and people are ridiculously nice to us. i’m not all upons it as i’ve heard some first hand accounts of racism in this country.

some memorable highlights so far include:
-> FINALLY LEARNING TO LIKE MUSSELS. mom, dad, i hope you’re happy. it only took 10 years after i first tried them :D
-> seeing some magnificent skies over the ocean
-> catching some whales at a few different points (no pictures, they were too far away anyway, still… so cool!)
-> not getting a tan :( yet. i hope.
-> HOLDING A KOALA (see pictures!). they are as soft and fuzzy and warm and adorable as they look. seriously. i officially want to be a koala when i’m reborn. they are loved by all; all they do is sleep and eat. too awesome.
-> feeding kangoroos!
-> seeing surfers’ paradise – what an adorable town! touristy, yeah, but ohmygosh its all so cute
-> buying some awesometastic strawberries at a road market
-> one of the most awesome parts so far was the awesomeness of tim who has cooked breakfast (eggs, bacon and toast and coffee!) each morning. i wash the dishes afterwards, but there were occurances where his cooking was … leaving me speechless. example: we wake up at 10am in some campersite lot somewhere between here and sydney. i’m sleepy, hungover, tired, and more like a stone than a person. we pack up quickly, get out by 10am (check out time), and i fall asleep at the back. tim drives us to a beach (!), cooks breakfast and makes coffee, and then wakes me up to the view of the ocean, blue skies and smell of coffee. i believe i may have found the last perfect man on earth.

float on

my new favourite song of the moment is modest mouse – float on. totally.

ai assignment has been submitted; 5 days to write an essay and prepare for an exam. i’m having a quiet evening in the super clean living room – kevin and smita cleaned it up while i was doing the assignment today. lesley ann, mike, and La’s friend cheryl left on a trip through the outback, and the apartment feels considerably more empty.

last night was a big out night – the last one with all the people that i have met here. james, a guy from wales has left australia, and he was one of the major people who we hung out with here. we ended up staying out until about 6am… and i finished the ai assignment in 7 hours today :)

it feels excellent to be done with classes. even though i still have 2 essays and 2 exams left it truly does feel like the semester is over. :D

all about study

in my AI class we’re learning how to design a program using a naive bayesian method that would build a most efficient tree to solve problems. we’re learning about how designing a min-max tree for a battle with an opponent can give us more or less possibility for higher scores, but with more risk. basically, we’re learning how would we go about giving a computer a chance to beat a human opponent in some game.

in my philosophy of mind class we’re learning why should humans presume they are playing a human being when they are playing a chess game on a computer, instead of trying to break it into lines. essentially, we’re learning why is it that we assign intentionality to other things, even when we know the computer is not really a human opponent.

this is all a little crazy. all the courses i took, all the information that i paid to study and learn, its all coming together, and its a bit freaky to study two sides of one problem during one semester in two different classes.

oh, also, additionally, submitting my 3rd AI assignmnent, just on time:

: -bash-3.1$ ~cs3411/bin/classrun give ass3 ass3.pro

Period: 06s1
Submission: ass3
------------------------------
Files found: ass3.pro
------------------------------

Submission datestamp:   Wed May 31 23:59:54 2006
Assignment deadline:    Wed May 31 23:59:59 2006
This submission is on time.
Submission accepted

and now, i’m off to write my philosophy test. yay!