I don't think I've met Bear before. But I've met quite a few of
the others like rainee, Neko, Starpup, mayi, ah lau, Lazie, Pitot,
and so on.
Tell your friend that Yr 1 Sem 1 is the honeymoon. It gets harder
and harder with each successive semester. No kidding. 
Semester 4 is usually the toughest semester of all for ME
undergraduates - it usually gets somewhat easier after that. I'm in
Semester 5 now, and while things are tough, it's at least somewhat
more manageable than last semester.
