Before and After

Before internet access:

I type this once again on ms word, because i’ve just moved in to my room and neither wireless nor LAN connection has been enabled yet…

So far i’ve gotten quite a good impression of the whole place – in the morning my host drove me to the dorm to move my stuff in – i’m sharing a double room with my roommate who also happens to be from NUS, though we didn’t plan for this arrangement one bit… Thankfully by the end of the day we were able to figure out how to configure the placement of the beds to best suit the layout of the room – though i must admit that it looks rather unconventional – it’ll do for now…

After checking in went about the usual settling-in stuff like walking around the place and setting up a bank account – so far things have been pretty hassle free by God’s grace – having my mother around definitely does help because she checks stuff that i always forget…

In the evening some of the UNC people who’ve been to S'pore brought us to Walmart to do some shopping , and then to Applebee’s for dinner (was reminded of Talladega Nights because Applebee’s is pretty prominently mentioned there) –quite good stuff actually- and the portions were quite satisfactory too…

After internet access:

Well thankfully today the internet connection for my laptop, both for LAN as well as wireless came after i brought it to the computer centre for configuration - which took all of five minutes - and methinks that's a big step towards settling down here so yay =)

One thing that's bugging me now is course registration - basically i got all the courses that i had wanted, but unfortunately these are the courses that i put down as my choices for the dummy round ( i.e. not the final list of modules that i mapped with the people at nus). While my 2 UE choices remain the same and hence i don't need to do anything about them - the three slots for my hist modules are allocated to things that i don't really want - of course all's not lost lah- thre's still time and sufficient chance to rectify the situation - and i don't want to agonize over it as well...

One thing that i'm rather pleased with is the campus itself - and on a more specific level, my hall as well... The campus itself is a very nice place - i can't describe how welcome a change it is from the unfriendly dull rectangular-tiled façades of nus - and the weather, while at this time of year still occasionally as hot as in S'pore, with as fierce a sun, is less humid, and hence more condusive to walking from place to place - which is basically what i've been doing so far.

A good alternative would be to obtain a bike by some means or other, as the facilities here for biking - including bike lanes on roads, trails and places to chain them - are tons better than what i am subject to back in S'pore, but the cost of it as well as the security issue (a policeman at a briefing today said that he gets five reports of stolen bikes a day) sort of discourage me from doing so.

What i am very encouraged to do, however, is to go running - brought the necessary stuff, and furthermore there are far more people here who go running as compared to back in nus - and many of these look to be people of my (lack of) calibre, since it's much more of a lifestyle than a fitness thing per se here - which means that even cannot-make-it people go running - which at the end of the day means that i won't feel so self-conscious about running during the day and being seen by anyone and everyone (cos for me at least for now my habit of running at night won't be continued here).

My hall itself - Spencer - is very conveniently located. It's along Franklin Street, which in means understandable to nus peeps, is like fong seng times ten =) In other words, the most happening stuff here, especially at night (i dunno if you want to include the funeral home located along the road in that category =p), is right at my doorstep. It's also next to Coker Arboretum (which is really just a very fancy word for what basically is a park with lots of different kind of plants in it - not to mention Squirrels and many birds like Robins and Cardinals too), as well as the Morehead Planetarium, which i also hear is pretty good... And of course, it's only a short walk to stuff like the dining hall (where you basically get an all-you-can-eat buffet at every sitting - which partially explains my enthusiasm for running), the main libraries, the student store and other stuff =)

One thing though is that many people have not moved in yet, so things will get much more noisy and crowded as each day goes by, both around campus as well as in the hall itself - but generally the people here are really nice so am not too bothered about that...

I must admit that socially speaking it'll take some more time to adjust to life here. Never thought that i'd be missing the company back in S'pore this much (though i'm sure a lot of that has to do with the fact that i've not met too many people here yet - though i definitely don't want to think of it in terms of a friendship vacuum) and at the same time think that it can't be good at all if in the long run while i'm here i am in more contact with the people back in S'pore than with the peoeple here. And this morning as i was doing my qt the Lord was reminding me that for all my feelings of loneliness, what i haven't been doing is taking time to bring this before Him in a time of extended prayer, rather than the usual chop chop affairs that still predominate my prayer life now - and find it hard to change to a more consistent and substantial time of just really seeking Him.

A semi-side note: back at home i was really pampered by having a guitar with me in my room - it made spending time to meditate upon God's word and in prayer that much easier to transition into from everyday affairs - and of course it's also a great way to alleviate boredom - but at least for the former i realise that i can't rely on externalities to absolutely determine the quality of my time spent with God and for the latter - well, there's so much to do here - why should i spend so much time cooped up in my room anyway? Though in any case hope that i can get my hands on one eventually at least from time to time (heard some of my floormates playing one...) to practice or else might forget it all...

Oh, and if any of you want my address and/or local phone number, just in case any of you are headed here before i leave on Jan 4, just drop me a mail and i'll pass it to you - thanks =)