// of crowded buses, canteens, lectures and tutorials //

an unprecedented thing happened in mse.
that is, crowded tutorials.
on the first week of tutorial, i conscientiously followed my timetable, going to the allocated tutorials and boy, were those TAs disappointing.
The worst of all was the one for 3002. (also my most dreaded module)
The TA simply flashed the answer on the OHP and stood there.
Some caucasian exchange student asked her a question, and her answer was barely satisfying, to say the least.
To make things worse, my (and others) eyesight was put to the test as the projected image was too small.
Out of a total of 5 tutorial classes, 4 were by her.

So guess what?
last thurs, after our lecture (for another module), fellow yr 3 students sprinted up the stairs from level 1 to 5, to the one and only tutorial session conducted by the lecturer.
I was one of them too.
To secure seats, almost whole of the lecture group made a beeline for the tutorial room 25.
I almost burst out laughing, when i realised the comical situation.
Chairs were moved from the opposite room over to TR 25 and soon, the whole TR was filled but some people were still outside, looking for a teeny-wheeny bit of space to squeeze in.
Eventually, an amused lecturer said, "Those who are not from this tutorial group, can you please let the others come in"
Apparently, one of those trapped outside was complaining to the lecturer that she was from this group.
Then, another voice from outside said"If the TA wasn't so lousy, we wouldn't have come"
Oh, yes totally! The brutal but honest truth.
Finally, the lecturer relented "Ok, for the next hour, I would take over that tutorial too. For this week only. Next week, probably I'll book an LT"
Whoa, finally this is coming out of the horses' mouth.
Then, satisfied by his answer, some students went out for others to come in.
By right, after his tutorial, would be the TA's tutorial at the same TR.
By doing so would mean that he would be chasing the TA away when she arrives.
Talk about unprecedented happenings.

For weeks, I wonder why.
mse peeps have been attending lectures so faithfully such that almost all lectures were at least 3/4 filled.
this is a contrast to last year, when the LT was barely half-filled.
in fact, once, during applied chem lecture, the LT was less than a quarter filled and the lecturer turned off the lights at the back of the LT, i guess, to conserve electricity.
someone said that since it's already the penultimate year, people are now more hardworking in a bid to pull up gpa, some said, maybe they suffered a drop in gpa last sem.
and of course, there're still people who have stick to watching online recording, which have served them well.

Canteens and buses as well, have been extremely crowded.
the general theory is that it's the start of the academic year, people are more conscientious to attend lessons.
well, there's another theory is that it's due to the incoming dragon babies freshmen.
i'm not sure which plays a bigger part though, but one thing is for sure -ntu should have more canteens!
Take the north spine foodcourt as an example, i'm 100% certain the stallholders are making profits.
So much so that us students have to fork out the extra charges that will be incurred by ordering takeaways to eat at the old canteen A.
Moreover, with the enlargement of the eating area, it is clear they ARE making profits.
And it is not because i'm craving for that expensive ( $3.50 - $5) jap food or that $2 BCM for that matter, it is because i have no other choice!
Give us more choices! More variety of fastfood too.
Speaking of prices, canteen B do offer much cheaper food but the queues themselves are horrendous. There's not even enough space for queuing during lunchtime.
Haiz... whoever who heard that ntu has 16 canteens is in for a shock, 14 of these canteens serve the those living in the hostel.