Nope, can't think of a title again...

Today saw a little less slacking on my part, since it was Sunday, so we went to church - the church some of the extended family (who stay almost next door, in typical Asian fashion) of our host go to. It's called People's Church, and though the name of the church may sound a little left-leaning, rest assured there were no tyrannical goofy-looking Pastors that hold absolute control over the church nor a congregation that were goose-stepping while waving flags and pictures of their dear leader around. In fact, there was a very convivial atmosphere there, and i would have felt right at home, if not for the fact that i didn't really think about a dress code save for wearing long pants, only to arrive there and find almost every single member of the male gender there (except for a token child or adolescent, oh and me too) wearing a collared shirt of some kind, even if they were wearing berms. So i spent a good portion of the service scanning around the sanctuary looking for other dress code offenders - hmmm...

The service itself was contemporary but definitely not even bordering the more charismatic jumpy style. The worship itself was done on a very big scale - the team consisted of ten to fifteen people standing in a row across the whole stage à la the "Seasons of Love" scene in Rent, supported by a full choir, all the usual musicians, plus a full orchestra, all except the ten to fifteen people being visible somewhat in the picture below (the ten to fifteen people are not there cos i took this photo after worship - in fact this photo is so badly taken cos i quickly sneaked my camera out, took a snap, and immediately stuffed my camera back in my bag again - the last thing i wanted to do was to draw further attention to the collarless shirt guy...)

In any case, i had a blessed time at the service - though the duration (which like last week's church, was all of one hour and ten minutes) was something that i'm still not used to. The worship and the message were both very evangelical - none of that superficial fluff which sadly does come up now and then in other places... Yup more pictures and details of the church can be found there =======> cos they take forever to upload here, and i also don't want to say the same things twice...

After the service, we went to the mall for the afternoon - i spent much of my time there walking up and down, browsing through the various stores, wondering whether to buy this or that but in the end only buying a couple of small items. Walking along the boys' department at the various department stores, i observed that by implication my size in the US is still that of a boy - since a good portion of the clothes there can fit me (and in fact i have bought such clothes recently, but i refrained this time)

Walking through the mall has all but confirmed in me the fact that i'm starting to sound more and more American. For example when i hold the door for someone and they say "thank you" i no longer respond with "you're welcome" but now with "yerrr wellcum" or something to that effect. And when i accidentally brush against someone it's no longer "sorry" that i utter but rather "sahrry"... And i no longer "queue up" or take the "lift" - now i "join the line" and take the "elevator". Basically, i consciously can take note of whenever i subconsciously speak American. I suppose that it's inevitable in a sense because if i do not converge with the predominant accent, i may not be understood - you can talk about asserting your S'porean identity all you want, but if the folks around you don't understand you, how will you get by? So i have a feeling that by the end of these few months i may sound more and more American and hence become one of those fake-os whom i always frowned upon last time because of their atrociously affected accents...

I had forgotten to mention that the day before yesterday, we got lost driving around downtown Fresno trying to locate the Greyhound station to buy tickets to San Francisco. And it was at night too. I tell you during the more than half an hour driving around, i saw so many 'colourful' sights it disturbed me. (FYI, according to the ever-dependable wikipedia Fresno is the city with the most concentrated level of poverty in the US - so you get the idea of what i saw) That has further got me thinking on these issues and how to react to them as a Christian, specifically in the near future while i am still here (and i hear that some of the neighbourhoods relatively near UNC are of the same pattern as what we have in Fresno)

My host's daughter, who's also my friend from my previous church, is now in Mexico for exchange too - and guess what - her baggage got lost by United Airlines as well - and it hasn't been recovered yet - so that's in total the fourth story i've heard of UA doing so already... Hmm so in the future, should i still fly the friendly skies?

Since much of my time here has been spent slacking and eating, i've been putting on weight - and i haven't even started school yet! This i suppose is part of the reason behind weird thing about me #6... But anyways, looks like i'll really have to find some form of exercise once i get to school...

Tomorrow i take the Greyhound again - this time a much more manageable close-to-five-hour ride to San Francisco, where the flight to school *typing of post interrupted by farny skype call from Daniel n Mei Si plagued by background noise and a poor connection* will be from. Now with those new anti-terror guidelines i can't bring any liquids on board the passenger cabin, which is of little significance to me except that i'll be pestering the flight attendant for water very often. I wonder if people will now look back at that old Clairol Herbal Essences ad with the lady making "Yes, yes!" noises while shampooing her hair in the plane lavatory with nostalgia...

Heard the Matt Redman song again on the radio today - think it's on it's way to becoming one of my favourites - hooray for biblical lyrics =)