2012

It's a brand new year again! Yes, again! Can you imagine that time passed by just so quickly that I barely have time to reflect on what I've done in 2011? 2011, wasn't really a year worthy to reminisce, considering the fact that we had two major exams to sit for. But at least, it's all over. Nevermind the exams and stress, just make sure we enjoy as much as we work. That's kinda my new year's resolution! 2012 will be a better year.As everyone's excited for the new year, many could also be wondering if the "2012 myth" or whatever people perceive it as is real. I never really cared, though it's fun to share the eagerness. Oh, why would we be eager to find out if it's really not erroneous that our lives are coming to a full stop? Nevermind the stress :)

So, the first week of January was pretty exciting as I picked up a long lost hobby; baking. Baking has always been my interest since the stay in the US. I have baked oatmeal cookies, three layers brownies, scones etc all of which I have been guided by my host dad, who's a good cook. I started off by trying my hands on banana muffins. They turned out ok. The colour and texture were to my expectation. But the taste wasn't very convincing to me as I've added a lil bit more of vanilla extract.The next time I baked, the end products which were raisin scones turned out rather desirable. The colour was a lil pale although I wished to see the nice golden brown. Taste wise was quite good. I liked it myself. Everyone enjoyed the scones. As for baked honey chicken, not too favorable as the flavors didn't combine that well.
Tomorrow, I am baking Spritz cookies, also known as butter cookies.

Enough of bakes. Now, HKU interview. Ahhh, this is one of the best, yet intimidating interview I have been to. To be honest, I wasn't at all confident about this one and it was a group interview. You know the enormous pressure when you witness a battle of wits, and you're supposed to be the one participating as well. My batch was a mediocre one, with one or two who were very promising. I think I belonged in the mediocre class. Anyway, our interviewers were a professor from Faculty of Law and another Chinese lady, probably the admission tutor. Funny as it might sound, we did not have an intro segment which really surprised me. All we did was to offer firm hand shakes before and after interview. They did not even introduce themselves. But I later found out that the professor's name is Michael Wilkinson. His name really does his justice. He was a very pleasant looking man, regularly cracking jokes to induce laughter in the interview room. We all had to engage in a discussion on what is causing destruction to the world. I wasn't the first to speak. The girl beside me kickstarted the discussion by pointing out inequality. Then, bla bla bla, it went on till morality came in. I hopped in to point out about greed. There were actually many issues I was able to relate to this. But I only managed to highlight global warming. I know, very cliched. But guess what, I was like the second last to speak and that was also after prof asked me to speak. The girl on my right was the last. We were both so quiet at the beginning. I thought we were shaken by the wits of the rest. For a moment during the discussion, my mind ALMOST wandered somewhere else as there were some points which I don't really understand. Thank god! When it was my turn, I gave a speech of decent length on what I wanted to say. The minute I ended my speech, prof intefered "You were so quiet just now and now you gave a brilliant speech" All I could afford was a grin and some chuckles. I don't know if this means good or bad but at least I caught the interviewer's attention. Oh and did I not mention that the chances of getting into HKU are really low that I think only 1/10 of international applicants would get the offer. Prof reminded us on that. Nevermind the stress again. Then, we had to voice out our conclusions which I literally crapped because out of no where, panic got the better of me. Shucks. It took about 30 minutes before we were dismissed. Prof shook our hands and when it came to my turn, he told me "You're a funny person. You wouldn't speak until I told you to. But when you speak, you make very much sense" Again, the usual me with the chuckles. I replied "I think that's my nature." A boy in the group interupted by saying "Maybe she's shy". Yeah, maybe. Anyhow, there's always one thing about interviews that scares me despite the fact that I've been to quite a number of interviews in the past. The one thing is always speaking up in a group discussion, that's why I never enjoyed group discussion. But this time, I sailed through it quite smoothly and I've won some valuable experience from it.