Gresham goodbyes...

If you’ve been wondering why i’ve been so efficient in posting here, it’s simply because i’ve a lot of time on my hands as of late – since everything begins to wind down in the late afternoons till evenings – since while there’s a lot of time, there conversely is not enough time to explore far beyond metropolitan Portland itself, save for the day trip up to Seattle (which was quite a bummer), especially since Uncle Rico (my mother’s friend and the owner of the house we’re living in) has not more leave and has to go to work – making going to far away places that much harder.

It’s times like these when i feel like kicking myself for being too lazy to get a driving licence up to now – (not that there would be much chance that i’d be able to loan any of the cars from Uncle Rico but let’s just magically assume that i would be able to) cos that would make exploring that much easier – then there’d be tons of places that i would want to go to around here. The half-day with Mark driving opened my eyes to some of the possibilities that could otherwise have been open to. I could of course ask my parents to drive, but they are of the too-scared-to-drive-on-the-other-side-of-the-road variety… Oh well, hopefully by the next time i come here (which ought to be soon) i can drive already...

Hmm so hence especially since Uncle Rico’s leave ended, going out has meant either going to eat out or to visit what appears to be every single outlet store in the suburban Portland area – today alone we went to seven different stores –Costco; Walgreen’s; Grocery Outlet; Old Navy; Bed, Bath and Beyond; Borders and Target. And let’s not forget WalMart, Kmart, Safeway, Craft Warehouse, Payless Shoe Source, JoAnn’s and many more where that came from. That’s one thing that amazes me about here – how despite the relatively low housing density here (at least compared to S’pore), there still appear to be so many of these stores of Mammoth proportions that don’t go bust… Sigh did i mention that Ben & Jerry’s retails here at under $3 a tub? And that Post Cereals sell for like $2, and Ritter Sport goes for 5 bars for $5 (all USD)?

Hmm well at least there's something that Singapore's cooler in...

Well one thing that i appreciate about the time that i have on my hands is the opportunity to spend time of better quantity and quality in prayer – that’s something that i feel the Lord is challenging me to pay much more attention to nowadays. And prayers not solely for myself (cos in the current state that i’m in, i need lots of that) but definitely also for others – that’s probably why many of my correspondences to friends now end with a “So how can i pray for you?” bit – i suppose that’s partly because now that i am separated from the community of believers that i am most familiar with in S’pore, i realise the importance of remaining connected in a sense through a better identification with what others are going through especially since you don’t see them… And prayer is definitely a great way that God has given us to do that (among the many other great things about prayer – such that i’ve begun to feel a new freshness in my walk with God – though there’s still a long lonely road ahead). Yup – so to whoever is reading this – do feel free to let me know ya – think that it would be a blessing and privilege to pray for you, especially in the absence of the opportunity now to be able to physically pray WITH you...

Tomorrow i leave Oregon for good to drier and warmer pastures in Fresno, California. It’s an 18-hour overnight bus ride (methinks akin to S’pore to some restive southern province in Thailand) which ought to be interesting and tiring. Perhaps one highlight is passing through Sacramento – California’s state capital – maybe i can say hi to governor Arnie hehe… As a result, i’ve had to try and reorganize my baggage in the light of added winter clothing from Mark – decided to Ziploc them since firstly they take up a lot of space, and secondly i won’t be needing them in the foreseeable future, so there’s no problem with stashing them away somewhere for now… The entire process of sealing them (the result of which can be seen below) taught me to never attempt to Ziploc stuff without first cutting your nails – i ripped through one bag and have almost punctured another one while not heeding this piece of advice just now… Additionally- i’ve realised that i’ve seriously overpacked- so once i get to school i’ll have to go through my bags again and take out what is really not necessary and hand it over to my mother (thankfully she’s around =) to bring home.

Hmm and speaking of nails that need to be cut - there's a guitar in the room that i've been staying in for the past week - it's an acoustic and it sounds great - the only problem being that it's tuned down by more than one semitone and since it's not mine i don't want to change the tuning... Anyways, think it sounds so good because in the exact opposite of what happened during MEET trip, now that i've been using solely the classical at home for more than a month, any acoustic that i pick up sounds tons better. Well, hope that there'll be a guitar somewhere around when i'm at school - and think when i get home i'll eventually go guitar shopping =)...

Here’s one thought that has been swimming in my mind as of late – since i’ll be in the States all the way till early January, i am theoretically able to attend Urbana, something that i had always thought about but also always put on the backburner. But after having a taste of what IVCF is like over here through Mark’s contacts, i’ve moved it over to the frontburner (if there’s such a thing). Have visited the website and things have looked promising so far. That’s something that i suppose i’ll be praying a lot about and asking around about once i get to school proper – especially since i don’t want to end up there solely for the sake of being there…