Even more tempted

I roamed around the AI website (again) and the dates of the American Idol Live! Tour are out. I didn't receive any email from them I dunno why, probably because I'm all the way in Singapore.

And.

And. And and.

They'll be at LA on this date:

July 7 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center

HURRAY!!!!!

It's on a school day - Monday, I doubt it'll clash with any future touring plans, so I can gooooooo! *crosses fingers* hope I manage to get tickets!!!!

Changed money again

I checked out the rates at two money changers in Tampines and settled for the much better one at Tampines Mall.

US$1 = S$1.355.

After calculating the uncle at the counter said that he will give me the price rounded up to the nearest dollar, which means I gain US$1.

So I happily thanked him.

'No no, you have to pay more!'

-_-

Then tell me that I have to pay that bit more first, don't tell me things like you're gonna give me a better price!

一场欢喜一场空。

Chey.

Calling home

One thing that I'm required to do at LA is to call home.

So as to reduce my parents' worry for me.

At Italy last year I called everyday and can chat with my parents for minutes and oh-my-god my bills.

I have to find a much cheaper solution now. Plus, I will be having a laptop this time which may make things simpler.

I can call from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. Singapore time, which means 3 p.m. to 6 a.m. the next day in LA. Erm. So I guess it'll be in the daytime at home when I call.

I'll probably just use MSN, which means I can only call home when my brother is online because my parents don't know any MSN. I can use SingTel Internet SMS to text my bro to come online, so that I can talk to my family. This would be totally free. However this will mean that I may be unable to call 'cos of time zone differences and there are times when my brother has to work the whole day. I won't be able to do reporting when I'm travelling/away from my laptop.

If I'm stupid enough I'll use Starhub International Roaming which will cost me SGD3.50/min. I'm soooooo not gonna subscribe to that.

I used StarHub's GlobalRoam *108* when I was in Italy. The rate was SGD 1.50/min (the quality is supposedly poorer than Int. Roaming but it is good enough) and it's the same for calling from the US! *faints* I'll be there for like 7 weeks and oh-my-god-again the bills. SMSes are at SGD 0.60. I guess I'll only use this when I won't be able to connect to the internet, for e.g. when I'm travelling, when I reach Bangkok and LA, when I leave Bangkok and LA. Gotta check if we need to pay for wireless at the airports. I can expect a voucher from StarHub again.

I was thinking I'll probably get a prepaid line in the US. The returned students told us that you can actually get a prepaid line and it comes with a free Motorola disposable phone. I don't know how disposable is disposable but oh well. I searched AT&T because it's the only telco I know (read: American Idol). But I didn't find anything relevant at the site. I'm actually interested in how the phone will look like and feel like getting one for the fun of it. The returned students advised us against getting it. We'll see how cheap (or expensive) it is.

And next, Skype. I am rather alien to this program. My problem now is I have to pay to call mobile phones and landlines and I'm not comfortable with paying up but aiya. I'll talk to my family about this. The rates are actually quite cheap compared to my other options, I'm just worried about the extra fees. Calling Singapore landlines/mobile is USD 0.024/min with value-added tax (VAT). Which means it's about SGD 0.033/min. And I have to pay a connection fee with every call. That is USD 0.045 after VAT which is SGD 0.0612. That's very cheap compared to my other options. I have to buy prepaid credit and that's USD 10. Let's say I make a call for every of the 49 (minus travelling time) days, that's USD 2.205. I'm left with USD 7.795 and that's about 6 to 7 minutes' worth of talktime per day. That should be enough.

I'll most probably use Skype la. Will talk to bro about this.

So-called Pre-departure Briefing

As mentioned earlier, we were asked to go down to LT 31 for a briefing yesterday. I thought there were further instructions and details for us.

In the end, from 2 p.m. we waited till 3 p.m. for the IRO personnel to come in and then talk to us about intercultural adjustment issues, health tips, safety tips, and a checklist before departure.

I mean, those are really things that they can just let us read ourselves. What a waste of my time! -_-

Oh they also told us about some orientation and accommodation and visa stuff, and they then emailed us the same thing.

The most exciting part of the 'briefing' was when the lady from the Dean's Office informed us about our groupings and the appointed group leader.

She actually showed put our passport photos plus names and contact nos. into a page in MS Word. So I freaked out when I saw my photo in the first row, we were saying that if your face appeared first you could be the group leader.

I don't want! Ivan was saying that he won't have any kind of objections and will be happy to have me/Chui Ying as leader. Etc etc. Group leaders are the contact points among the groups and the Dean's Office and some student office in UCLA.

And then revelation.

The few of us burst out laughing. They scribbled 'GROUP LEADER' with arrows pointing down on top of Ivan's photo.

I have no objections! HAHA.

So I'm in Group A, along with Dai Jing, Chui Ying, Ivan, Divya, Jessica, Haitao and Elizabeth.

We're waiting for the acceptance package from UCLA to reach here. I'm a bit excited about it -_- because it will feel like I'm being matriculated again.

Okay, okay.

So tempting

I was 'researching' for the showtimes for American Idol Live! Tour 2008 but apparently they're not up yet. So I registered my email for them to send me the most updated news.

I wanna go watch at LA! Since I'll be there in summer and that's about the time that the tour starts. Last year the tour lasted from July to September. So I pray that I'll get to watch this year!!! In 2006 they came to LA only in late August. And if that's the same for this year, that's it! I won't get to watch! =(

Usually the top 10 contestants get to perform. So I'll get to see Michael Johns!!!!! =D

So bloody excited.

Oh and last year's tickets were from about USD 36 to 72 plus. I think I can afford and I asked Ivan to go with me! I'm so so so looking forward!!

Argh! Please please please let me watch! Come to LA when I'm there alright?! Pleeeease.

Michael Johns!

Approval

The modules I registered for have been approved by the NUS coordinators as well as accepted by UCLA. Therefore, I am going to take

• ETHNOMU 120A - Development of Jazz; and
  
• MUSIC 80F - Beginning Guitar Class

when I'm at UCLA. I'm taking Jazz alone, I hope things won't be too difficult/boring/heavy! I don't know much about jazz actually. *cross fingers*

I'm starting to get a bit excited. Hurrah!

In a rich man's world

My brother had an off-day last Friday, and he was going to exchange for some Malaysian Ringgit since he's going on holiday this week. As he's my Official Sponsor for the summer programme, I asked him to check out the rates for the USD as well.

And he managed to get one in Bedok that was USD1:SGD1.36!!! Hurray! But he only changed a small sum, since it's predicted that the USD will depreciate some more.

Mum already told me that she wants some branded bags from the U.S. -_-

She even pointed to me what kind of bags she wants to have.

So thank goodness for the government's GST Offset Package.

~~~~~

Next up for the UCLA summer programme: Modules, Pre-departure briefing.

USD drops again

A relevant post from the main blog.

Depreciation of USD

A relevant post from the main blog.

Done with CTC

Dai Jing and I were contemplating whether we should change our passports to the biometric one since everything started -_-

And so we decided not to after many many doubts.

Therefore we had to submit the photocopies of our passports to the CTC tour agent, Mdm. Leong. I faxed them just now.

Done!

We (I) actually asked ICA and the USA Embassy in Singapore, and I asked Tiffany and Jennifer if they went to Arizona and Los Angeles respectively with biometric passports. Both said no! And they left at the beginning of the year.

So I'm more or less quite 安心。I know I should just go ahead and do, can save up all the hassle and uncertainty but...never mind laaa. =P Laziness is not a reason 'cos I can just send it via post and collect it and go. Maybe sian is the reason =S