[MISC] Contemplating whether to celebrate your 21st Birthday? Here are some tips!

Dear Readers,

Are you considering whether you should celebrate your 21st birthday? Too much of a hassle? Too lazy to plan? Worried no one will turn up? Worried about costs? Worried you get shitty presents that's not worth the price you paid per head? No worries, this post will help you make the right decision!

Read on to find out more about why you should/ should not celebrating your 21st birthday!

Some of my friends asked me: Why is a 21st birthday so special that people have to celebrate it? Don't everyone turn 19. 22, 23, etc. once in a lifetime? 

My response: True, but the age of 21 is when you become legal to do many things, and when you get a whole lot more of responsibilities. It's the age when you are granted a lot more freedom and have higher accountability of your actions. Therefore, it is worth celebrating, and your celebration party can be a platform to catch up with friends that you haven't had the time to catch up with.

Is it too much of a hassle?
Depends on how large scale you want your celebration to be. I had a relatively simple one, with a mini activity to get everyone actively participating and entertained at the same time. So I had to prepare prizes for winning individuals and activity cards printed for the Bingo game. I also had a photobooth so I had to do up all the decorations and props, more pictures on this below(:

Location wise, I booked my venue 2 weeks in advanced and settled my food menu quite quickly with the hotel. My two-tiered birthday cake was ordered from my cousin's friend and was considered quite cheap, I got it at about $130, which is considered the cheaper end of two-tier cakes.

Too lazy to plan?
If you're a lazy person and your family and friends are also lazy to help you plan for your party, then celebrating will be a pain in the ass for you especially if you're not good at planning. Thankfully, for me, my family and friends were very supportive and helped me alot in giving me ideas and helping me out with the deco. Kudos to them <3

No money to celebrate? 
Celebrating doesn't mean you need to burn a hole in the pocket. I didn't spend that much on my party. For my decorations (photos will be shown below), I spent about $40 at most? Not kidding. My backdrop, table cloth, some table deco were purchased from Daiso. Balloons were purchased from the party store near Bencoolen Street. All the photobooth props were printed from home and handmade. Some props were also taken from home.

Depends on you really; One of my close friends recently celebrated at Park Royal @ Pickering. He booked the Presidential Suite for about 2k and catered food for his guests. He also ordered his cake from Plain Vanilla for 200 over dollars. So overall, he spent a lot more than I did although I sort of booked the entire hotel cafe and had a seafood buffet for my guests.

Also, another tip, if you have low budget, just plan to celebrate with a closer group of friends and family.

Shitty presents?
Do not set high expectations of your gifts. If you think about that, it might make you a lot more miserable. Anyway, it's always the thought that counts right? To me, having my friends attend my party is already the best gift, really!

So here are some of my 21st birthday pictures:

That's about it, folks! If you're interested, I celebrated my birthday at Bayview Hotel and stayed there for the night too! Feel free to comment below to find out more. Don't forget to follow me on Miss Lee's Life Story (:

Love,
Rachel

[School] NUS AY 15/16 Sem 2 Module Review: EC3371 Developmental Economics by Dr Elisabetta Gentile

Hi Readers,

Back with NUS module review again. This time round for EC3371. I realised the most recent module review for this module was for AY13/14 which made me hesitant in taking the module. So here's a review to help all make their decisions for your Econs elective modules.

Professor: Dr Elizabetta Gentile

Lectures:
2 hour lecture slots
Usually lasts 1 hour 35 minutes, occasionally ends early depending on feasibility of where lecture is stopped.

Lectures are held not in LTs but in AS6 since class size is small which was really not conducive for me to learn in especially when you come in 2 minutes before class and forced to sit all the way at the back of the classroom as the front seats are all fully filled.

Professor Gentile is very knowledgeable about this module which is really good because she really knows what she's teaching. To be honest though, everything she mentioned in lecture is pure regurgitation from the textbook. She leaves out some information from her slides and mentions them during the lecture, so it seems like there's a lot of information to note down. Truth be told, those info can be found in the textbook.

There will be a 10 minute break in between after the lecture has hit the 1 hour mark.

It seems like a lot of people do not attend lectures as it looks more like a class of 40 plus rather than 70.

Lectures are ok, not much to comment on.

Tutorials:
Graded presentations (20%)
Attendance and participation (10%)

Everyone will be split into 5 groups namely Alpha, Beta, Charlie, Delta and Echo, so for the first week of tutorial, Team Alpha will present a research paper that will be uploaded beforehand, then the next week, Team Beta will present another research paper. So after Team Echo has presented their first paper, Team Alpha will continue the next week to present the next paper for their presentation.

Each team will therefore need to present a total of 2 times. Each presentation is worth 10%. Since class is small, there is only 4 tutorial groups. Unfortunately or fortunately, my tutorial group was the smallest tutorial group with only 12 people. What does this imply?

Each team was only the size of 2 to 3 people, and my team only had me and another guy. My other friends, who were in larger tutorial size, had 5-6 people in their team. To me, that was really unfair because I was only a year 2 student with no background of EC3304, and I was tasked to present a phD research paper that had foreign terms like Difference in differences, IV regression, 2SLS, etc, all of which was not covered in EC3303. And EC3304 was not even a prerequisite for this module although indicated that it will be beneficial.

Thank god my partner was a Year 3 student that have taken EC3304 already, so he had a clearer understanding on the terms, and made it easier to work on the presentation.

Presentation grades for each round will be uploaded after the last team (Team Echo) have presented. It is graded out of 100.

Attendance and participation in included in the assessment of this module, and it made me really stress because whenever someone in the tutorial 'participated' aka, posed questions to the presenting team, the tutor will highlight your name to note that you did participate in that particular tutorial.

For my tutorial, Prof was my tutor and her expectations of tutorials were really high. Your questions had to make some sense or else she will end up rebutting against your point. In my opinion, to score for the participation component, just pose questions on parts of the presentation you are not clear on and if there are areas where labeling isn't clear in the presentation, ask the presenters to clarify. That earns you some participation grade too.

For those in larger tutorial groups, participation would be harder because everyone will compete to get their participation grade, so fastest hands as usual.

Always be punctual for tutorials!!! I once went into class early, placed my bag and went to the washroom cos I had a 3-hour Utown lecture before the tutorial, and when I came back it was 1 minute pass the start of class, and although the presenting team have yet to start their presentation, guess what? I was marked late....

You can never argue with Prof Gentile, she will always win the debate, so I just had to accept that I was marked down for attendance because I came in a minute late after going to the washroom..

Midterms:
Midterms was not that tough. Of normal difficulty, questions that tested a lot on your understanding on the concepts. What killed me was the first part of the paper, because she tested on specific definitions. She gave you the definition, and you had to identify which period is this referring to (eg. Malthusian period or which era of growth is this, etc.)

I did not expect that kind of definition question to come out, so I lost my 10 marks there.

Finals:
For me, it was a killer paper. Prof told us that the format of the paper is the same as midterms, but it turned out to be really different. Finals was supposed to be comprehensive, but she did not test anything from the first half of the lecture for content... Although mathematical questions from first half were tested (developmental and growth accounting)

Overall:
It was quite an ok module to take IF you like structured questions and you like challenge. Let me know if you guys have questions by posting in the comments column below!

Love,
Rachel

[Review] Bicycle.sg, the best place to get your bicycles!

Dear Readers,

Thought of getting a bicycle but don't know where to get reasonably priced bicycles that provides free doorstep delivery and also free gifts for purchases of bicycles?

Bicycles.sg is the perfect place for you! Do not know what type of bicycles you are looking for? Don't worry! The site even provides comparison of the different types of bicycles, allowing you to choose an ideal bike much more easily(:

You not only get a free doorstep delivery of your bicycle, the more you spend, the more freebies you get! When you spend more than $250, you'll get free Bicycle Tail Light + Bicycle Bell + Bicycle lock!

Not only do they provide a comparison according to the different types of bicycles, Bicycles.sg even provides order guides to ensure you 100% plus chop get the ideal bike you want. Where else to find such amazing service!

Prices of bicycles starts from only $78!

Also, now Bicycles.sg is having a special promotion! Eurobike is going at 50% off: the sale will end in 2 days! Get it now at such a great deal, with free delivery and even free gifts with the purchase of a bike.

Bicycles.sg has consistently proven its reliability as a trusted bicycle shop in Singapore. The No, 1 Bicycle Shop, a great place to shop for your bicycles!

Do visit their site at Bicycles.sg and you'll see that many of their customers have left their reviews and testimonials on their purchase!

Hope you find your ideal bike at Bicycles.sg soon!

Love,
Rachel

[School] Is Economics at the University level really for you?

Dear Readers,

I decided to do a post which targets tertiary students still contemplating if Economics is really what you want to pursue in University! Many of my guy friends entering Uni this year actually started texting to ask me what exactly Economics is about at the University level.

I believe, many of you A levels and Poly graduates out there might be wondering, is Economics like in the A levels where it is all about drawing demand and supply curves, identifying deadweight losses in market failure graphs and writing and explaining policies essays after essays?

Unfortunately not, my dear readers! Economics at the Uni level is not about essay writing. Yes, it might have been an Arts subject at the A levels but in Uni, it is very mathematical and it is a social science subject, although in the Arts and Social Sciences Faculty. However, you will need to draw SS and DD curves too, especially in Macroeconomics, but there will be a lot of other graphs you will need to know and learn about too!

What do I mean by Economics being a very mathematical subject? It involves data analysis, many regressions and knowing how to interpret coefficients of the regression results. Integration and differentiation do come into picture for certain modules, so if you're thinking you can escape all that math, then you should reconsider. Also, microeconomics covers quite a bit on Game Theory, so if you enjoy topics like the Prisoner's Dilemma, you might enjoy Economics quite a bit.

Economics is actually one of the biggest major cohort in NUS FASS. What does this imply? Very competitive when it comes to grading of the modules. Since it is all about math and application, many math geniuses out there including Chinese scholars excel in Economics modules.

Sometimes, these geniuses even scores full marks for their midterms, when the mean is 70-75 out of 100. Try to aim and get at least the Average or Median score to secure a decent grade.

Also, some tips on selecting what modules to take in the first semester:
1. Try to clear all your compulsory FASS baskets first (especially the Asian Studies basket)
2. For EC majors who are more or less cfm on EC as their major, take EC2104 and EC1101E together (Make full use of your S/Us)
3. Do something you think you might not be able to score well, and don't want to risk getting B- and below.


Some tips for potential Economics Majors before concluding on this post:
1. Read your textbook! They are very important sources of information and practice questions.
2. Attempt the questions and exercises in the Textbook (especially if the Prof even issues which questions to attempt in his/her lecture notes)
3. Read your lecture notes and remember key details (some Prof enjoy torturing students by testing specific contents in the lecture notes)
4. Most importantly, DO CONSTANT REVISION!!

I think these tips are general for all students, not necessarily Econs majors.

Hope you guys make the right decision to pursue something you enjoy doing, and feel free to drop me a comment if you guys need to clarify anything about Econs.

I might not be the best person to answer your doubts, but I will try my best to help (which is also my purpose of setting up a blog in the first place)

Love,
Rachel

[School] Hanyang International Summer School (HISS) Picture Gallery

Hey readers!

I'm too lazy to write individual captions for my photos so just for you to visualise roughly how student life is like at Hanyang, with the school fieldtrips and self-initiated Han River cycling outing/ picnic pictures too. Enjoy the pictures! 

This is a very rough summary of my experience during HISS 2015. I have filtered through a lot of photos, but many have my friends' faces in it and I did not seek their consent, so will not post them.

Cheers,

Rachel

[School] Hanyang International Summer School (HISS) 2015 Review- Academic related

Hey readers,

Finally back again with HISS 2015 review, this time round on academic related issues.

It seems that my recent HISS post was quite popular, and I'm guessing its because people are now making plans for their summer break already.


General info:

• Hanyang University (HYU) offers modules with 3-credits (which is equivalent to NUS 4 MCs)
• During HISS, you can map up to a maximum of 3 modules back to NUS.
• Classes offered at HISS are in blocks of 3 hours
• First class starts at 9am, 2nd class at 1pm, 3rd at 4pm.
• IF IF IF you intend to go to Korea with the intention to explore the whole city and perhaps even travel to Jeju, JUST TAKE 2 MODULES ( I would personally recommend taking one in the morning and the other in the afternoon)
• There is a one hour lunch break in between the first and second class.
• You are free to travel anywhere around the school campus for lunch (or even out of school if you think you have enough time to fly out and fly back) but people normally just eat at the Business School Canteen (although the food menu on certain days suck; anyway, more on food in my next post! I'll introduce you to more school food- which many others do not know of)\
• Last lesson ends at 7pm which is a very sad timing since you end up spending your precious evening in class
• Professors are mainly from the States since most of the profs are from the partner universities of HISS (and their students from these partner universities actually gets free accommodation!!!)
• Don't worry, lessons are conducted fully in English
• Worried about passing the module? Don't worry, you'll need to try very hard to fail this module. And you can do so by skipping 2 or more lessons in your entire 4 weeks.
• Korean language modules are EXTREMELY COMPETITIVE. Do camp in front of your laptop early to reserve a space.
• Since the programme is a 4-week one, midterms are held on the 2nd week. (PLEASE DO NOT FREAK OUT, the midterms were not that bad)
• Clearly, finals would be held on the final week.
• Don't be worried if the midterms are all held on the same day (mine did) and I turned out fine.

Health Equity

Prof: Dr Sunshine Cowan from UCO

Class hours: 9am to 12pm

Content and class routine:

Content revolves around Epidemiology, how everything in your environment affects your health. Class is very interesting since Prof Cowan is very entertaining, and she is extremely kind and lovely. This module is great for people in NUS that want to map back as a Public Health module; perfect for Minors in PH.

We usually watch videos about the different areas in US and how living standards varies in the different parts of the world and how exactly do these differences affect the way we live and how it impacts our health.

Midterm: Week 2 morning. Fill in the blanks, MCQ and some short structured questions including 1 bonus question. Paper was out of 100 points.

Finals: Week 4 Thursday morning. Can't really remember the format, but mainly comprised of fill in the blanks, short answer questions and 2 bonus questions. Note that you will not get back your finals exam scripts. You can only view your final grade once you touch down in your homeland (around 2 weeks time for results to be published on their own 'IVLE')


Money and Banking:

Prof: Mr Lee ( I forgot his full name, cos we never ever call the profs by their names)

Class hours: 1pm to 4pm

Content and class routine:

Money and banking was quite popular also as it hit the maximum class size of 36 quite quickly during course registration. Covered simple interest rate and money related stuff. Very basic things that I think would be covered in an introductory course to money and banking. Prof was a bit monotonous and we didn't listen much in his lecture. The Korean oppas sitting beside me were all watching baseball, rugby matches and MMA fights with their laptops. My Kazak friends were sleeping in lecture the whole 4 weeks (minus 2 lectures which they didn't attend)

About 2.30pm- 3pm, Prof Lee will get us to break into our small groups of about 5 and do the questions at the back of the textbook (which he photocopied for us the questions)

Then around 3.20pm, he will randomly call out a group to present their answers on the board to the entire class, but sometimes we were just too lazy to do it and Prof Lee wasn't that strict though so you do not need to worry so much about this component.

Prof Lee is super adorable that my friend asked him to take selfie before she exited the exam hall. Everyone was trying to hide their laughter cos Prof smiled so adorably to the camera and even asked my friend which is the camera black dot to look at (:

Midterm: Prof Lee was so 'on' about his midterms that he prepared 6 different papers labelled A-F so that everyone around you will not get the same paper and we would not be able to copy each others' answers. Paper was fully MCQ though, so it wasn't that bad.

Finals: Similar to the midterms, with 6 different MCQ papers. I think he just jumbled up the questions, but all 40 questions were the same I guess. Similar to Uni exams, once you were done with the paper you can just leave. So if you complete it quickly means you can either end school early or have a long break before your next class (evening class).


Introduction to Sociology:

Prof: Kitsy Dixon

Class Hours: 4pm- 7pm (Very bad timing for class tbh)

Content and Class Routine:

This module actually scared me at the beginning because a graded essay assignment was given during the 2nd lesson and was due in 3 days time. Can you imagine, I went there as a freshie, not knowing anyone, not knowing how summer schools are supposed to be, and the first thing I needed to do was a graded Soci essay?

Turned out to be ok, thankfully as prof marked the essay very leniently. Every lesson had a discussion component so we were supposed to break into groups to discuss the topic for that day. Prof was quite strict about using phones in class and maintaining class order. So whoever did anything that broke her regulations meant getting lectured. During the first class she set her rules very strictly and expected us to follow her regulations (no phones in class, no sleeping, etc.)

We had an excursion session during one of the lessons where we went to the Emart at Wangsimni station to observe people's expressions, behaviour, etc. I did not manage to attend that session cos my friend and I had alternative plans *ahem*

We also watched videos about linking the sociological models and perceptions in our society tht

Class usually ended at 6.30pm and it was a good time head out for dinner with your friends.

Midterms: I can't remember much about what was covered in the midterms, but I remembered very clearly that Prof told us the paper is full MCQ but turned out that she tested a flow model which required precise labelling and I totally did not memorise everything in the flow model in term as I was out at one of the fieldtrips organised the day before.

But turned out to be not too bad although I had friends getting full marks for the paper. Prof Dixon just tested the main concepts to ensure we really understood the key definitions.

Finals: Very similar format to the midterms. Content covered is much wider.

All in all, I was very worried at first because the first lesson made me worry about passing the modules, especially for Money and Banking but I wasn't listening much to prof but was watching Running Man or The Return of Superman. But everything turned out fine. If you intend to get straight As for all your mods to be get the Top Student Award at the Graduation ceremony then please be more attentive in class.

To be honest, I think class hours are great for making new friends and learning a new culture. I had classmates that were from the U.S.A, Kazakhstan, Indonesia, Netherlands, etc. It was a great experience conversing with them and getting to know their culture like.

Also, different Profs guest lectures each other's lessons so it was really cool getting to know more Professors. All of them were really really nice and tried not to give us work on Thursdays to allow us to enjoy the fieldtrips on Fridays and for us to enjoy our weekends. I really did not regret taking 3 modules in the end, as I still managed to use the time after my last class for bonding dinner with my international friends(:

If anyone has more queries, do feel free to comment below.

Feel free to share the blog with your friends that are considering/ in the midst of application to HISS!(:

[School] Hanyang International Summer School (HISS) 2015- Accomodation

Hello readers!

Back with a post, finally! Back with a review on my 2015 Summer Exchange experience. I had a blast during my summer break in 2015, and had no regrets going for the Hanyang Summer Programme. The friends, the activities, the food, the shopping!! One word, SHIOK!!! Gonna focus on accommodation for this post, so watch out for more posts regarding other activities/queries about HISS 2015! On a side note, please do note that I am NOT sponsored to write any of my blogpost. I am just a typical blogger that wants to share my experience to all, to help those that need more info/ help.

If there's anyone from the local universities (NUS/SMU/NTU/SIM, etc) intending to head for summer school in the near future, I would definitely recommend Hanyang International Summer School (HISS). Looking for a cheap destination for Summer exchange? Checked. Looking for a location filled with loads of fun activities? Checked. Looking forward to loads of shopping and food hunting? Checked. Looking for free fieldtrips? Checked. Looking for fun profs? Checked! The list goes on and on, and really, you wouldn't regret it (EVEN IF YOU ARE INTENDING TO GO ALONE, like I did!)

I spent around SGD2.8K on accommodation and programme fees for the 1 month exchange. Roughly 800SGD on housing, which I chose off-campus dormitory and it turned out pretty well (especially the location!!!)I got Roseville in the end, out of all the other off campus dorm, which includes Hyosung, Sunny House, Vision and some other names I forgot, but there were a few others.

Amongst all the other off-campus dorm, I think mine was in the most strategic location. Thank you Lady Luck!(: The allocation was completely random so it depends on where you were allocated to. Roseville was a 15-20minutes walk to school, it is right beside the main gate of Hanyang University. However, by entering from the main entrance means that you will have to conquer the 65 degrees slope upwards every morning (which was the most tough thing I encountered in Korea for that one month). Although, halfway through the programme, my roommate shared with me a route via entry from the backgate which was significantly less steep- and yummy Kimbap en route to school! (Thankful to nice friends made there!)

Roseville was such a great place to live in, there is a busstop right in front of the dorm, a GS25 right at the lobby of my dorm, 2 minutes away from University shopping at Wangsimni station, 30seconds walk to Paris Baguette for fresh bakes, free wifi on the streets and even if you're worried about safety, the police station is right opposite the dorm!!!!

To be honest, I wanted on-campus housing so badly because it was so much cheaper, but they said there wasn't any more availability (which was a lie... the admin were just a lil lazy to do extra processing since I was allocated off-campus dorm already) If you are looking for a cheaper alternative, go for on-campus dorm. I heard from my friends that the female on-campus dorms have private bathrooms, which isn't what they indicated on the webpage, but its a good thing right!! Also, so near to school cos you can wake up late!! However, the downside is that they don't have free in-room washing machine (which I had in Roseville), no fridge for you to store your Banana milk (which I also had and managed to store Banana and yogurt milk for Breakfast in Roseville) and that they have curfew (so if you intend to go clubbing then you'll be locked out of your dorm...)

Off-campus housing is the most expensive shared room option. However, again, based on luck, it depends on which housing you get allocated to. There were 3 different housing for off-campus housing for HISS 2015: Golden Forest, Golden Forest City and Konkuk University Dorm. The best one would be GF, not the one with the 'City' word cos they are very different!! GF, as mentioned by my friend, was like a hotel. They had complimentary bottled water everyday, a housekeeper to pack their beds, it was just luxurious. However, it was quite a distance away from school which means you had to wake up earlier for school since those that stayed there had to take a subway 2-4 stations to Hanyang University station.

Any issues on dorms, do pm me, i'll try to answer! Also, do comment if you have any particular worries/ query about the programme that you wish for me to address in my next blog post!

Till then, cheers!