It's 817am now at Troy. Today is the latest time that I have woken up at since i first came here 6 days ago. It's getting colder these few days and yesterday night was nuts!It was about -7 deg c WITH wind. And wind is the factor that makes the cold go straight into your bones.

Black guys encounter
You know how the blacks in US movies like to tease some girls on the streets? Valerie and I experienced it yesterday! We were walking back to our apartment, the two of us, in broad daylight, along a quiet street though. Nearing our aparment, we saw 2 black men, about 20 plus walking towards our direction on the same side of the street. Valerie told me she felt scared, so i suggested to cross and walk on the other side of the street instead. But it seem to make things worse as Valerie heard one of them say aloud

Black guy : "So now they walk on the other side of the street!"

I didn't pay attention as i thought they were just talking to each other, you know how loud Americans speak even when they are so close to each other.

We just continued walking about 3 metres when we heard the same guy shout "Hey! You go to RPI?"

I figured that if i ignored them, they may come after us and get our attention of something, so i turned around and said "what?" and made a face like I don't know what he was talking about and jsut shake my head.

Then he asked, "Hey are you 21?" I continued to act even more puzzled although i very well understood him.

He continued, "Are you 18?" I just looked confused and shook my head and shouted across "why?"

Then he said: " Cos I like you" with that annoying, teasing grin.

I was surprise that I felt calm and unafraid, which i thought i would be, and said with a can't-be-bothered tone "Sorry", and continued walking.

Luckily they did not follow us back or something. Valerie and I guessed that they may sense that we were avoiding them by crossing the street, thus inviting them to tease us. So the key is not to appear afraid, but still keep a distance from them!
I think Valerie and I handled it well, but I guess we better be more careful from now on.

Ice Hockey game!





The whole group of us were invited to watch an ice hockey match between RPI and Dartmouth, at RPI home ground. It was an eye-opener! I was surprised at how united and organized the RPI fans were in jeering at the opponent team. At the beginning of the game where they introduced the 5 main players of each team, the RPI fans shouted in unison " You suck" after each opponent player. When they introduced the rest of the team as a group, the fans shouted "you suck too!" While for our RPI team players, there were only loud random cheers and applauses, no organized cheers though.
Every time a player was penalized, they were put in the penalty box for a range of 2 to 5 mins depending on the type of offense they commited, and it will be reported by the commentator over the speakers. Whenever our player was sent to the penalty box, the corwd would go " suck" and would countdown "3, 2 ,1" when the player would resume playing and the commentator would go " RPI is back to full strength"
Dartmouth seems so be superior in their passes and receives, and also appeared more aggressive in their attack for the 1st period. Their effort paid off as they scored a goal in the first period. We were told that ice hockey has 3 20min periods with 15 min breaks in between. During the third period when RPI scored a goal then a second, the fans were standing up and pointing at the opponent goal keeper " It's your fault! It's your fault!", in unison!
The climax of the game was at the last minute of the game where they were just taking random shots and everyone seem to just CHIONG! And RPI almost scored a 3rd goal at the final 30 seconds.

It was crazy cold when we left for our apartment. I was jogging half the way back attempting to generate more body heat. It was so cold, I had to force myself to get out of the shower, only to scramble back into my room!

Life over here has been fun so far, with all the new discoveries about the US culture, and learning to take charge of an apartment together with fellow school mates. There'll be so much more to find out, and I'm really excited about school!