A new look site, and all I needed was to click template and steal somebody elses design... go to www.blogger.com to get your own website...

Just had a thunder storm, and lightning struck our hall, and knocked the power out. So now in computer lab, and its not so slow at 10pm.

Joined astronomy club here to learn more about space, the universe and everything. Dr Cheng is the resident physics professor and seems to know it all, almost finished Steven Hawkings Brief Histroy of Time, so really getting into it, all preparation for the future space program. Next weekend going to Langkawi (islands nearby) to photograph stars...etc. They go every month and some of the photos are really good. Did you know there are an estimated 1 trillion stars in our galaxy alone, 3% of those (30 billion) are expected to have planets orbiting them, and that's just our galaxy alone, there are millions of galaxies as well. Can you imagine that...? Plus the next telescope, James Webb telescope due to be launched in 2010 is so powerful that it should be able to see until the edge of the universe, the moment just after the big bang....

Also joined the KungFu club, doing chinese drums and Tai Chi, had first drums class today and have blisters on my thumbs, but its good. but held at weekends so may have to skip a couple due to travelling. Hoping to go Sarawak, Borneo for a music festival in the rain forest...

My grades from Mexico arrived through the post to England:

70% Spanish
95% Art
100% Economics & Free Trade Agreements
*Sculpture and Guitar were ungraded.

Hull are sending another student to NTU in Singapore this semester, he's Tom and he's staying in the same hall 1, that I stayed in. He told me about this service for calling overseas cheap. So to call me for 10p a minute whilst in Malaysia (7 hours ahead of UK) call 0871 570 0000 then 00 60 (0)164338297 (maybe remove the zero in brackets?) It charges your phone company 10p per minute, BT or whoever, some mobiles include this 0871 number in the freecalls you can make each month. you don't need to signup or do anything else. seems a good deal to me.



More Photos:
Wedding in Mexico City, with Faviola, sister of Estaban frommy guitar class.
flying high in Taiwan
Sars in Taipai
Sars notice in Taipai before boarding train


USM Penang
Universiti Sains Malaysia (University Science Malaysia AKA USM)
Fresher Rally USM
Aki- Japan
Eating bannana leaf curry in little india, Georgetown Penang.
Eileen- Toronto-Canada - Tandori restaurant -You go Girl!
Jari-Pekka - Finland
Katie- Alberta- Canada
Marleis -Amsterdam, holand
Remy-Canada

Cool
honda advert done in realtime without special effects. (really?!)

a computer science student,and its taken me 2 years of using blogger to put a link in my writing, but here we go, heres to the future!

I put a video I made for my Art class in Mexico on the web
It is 25mb, so may take a while to download. If it doesnt download, you may have to right click on the link and click save-as and save it to your harddisk.

enjoy. John

ok, so almost 3 weeks without any diary, but thats settling in for you I suppose.
And this is going to be brief as Im in cyber cafe and its midnight and Im tired.
Penang is good.
Orientation finished last week, classes started monday.
6 hours of Mandarin a week,
4 hours of malay
5 hours of drawing/design.
going well so far.
good to get back into chinese. Malay very easy to learn.
50 ish exchange students here, norway, finland, canada, holand, japan, usa,
food still good, although I have a stomach ache today.
moved into new hall, (or forced to move!) 3 in a room smaller than the last one, is cramped, but the two guys speak Mandarin and Malay, so I couldnt ask for more.
Woke up on Sunday morning to a body bag outside my window of a guy who ahad hung himself in the night. not the nicest of welcomings to the new hall, but everyone seems to be taking it well, considering. Lots of new friends. Malaysia much more relaxed than singapore, people have time to enjoy life, sit by the lake, hang out with their friends, be late...
Guitar going well, now 5 of us with them, and growing... maybe first gig next weekend.
Sister Sarah getting Maried to Simon next easter, april 10th.
spanish words appear to be being overwritten by chinese ones....
all good.
adios.
Juanito.