molding/molded

Looking through the travel classifieds in the staff lounge today, the relatively cheap offers caught my eye - then i looked at the dates offered (July, August, September...) and realized that in my (at least) near future, i won't be able to take advantage of such good deals anymore - instead i'll be competing with the tons of S'porean families at marked-up peak period prices to go to places during the december holidays where chances are i'll encounter some of these families again, making a beeline for the nearest Chinese restaurant and the cheap shopping as well, not failing to embarrass themselves (well, if not themselves, then definitely me) and cause real negative impressions of S'poreans to form in the eyes of locals in the process, prompting me to try and distance myself from them as far as possible, putting on a fake accent for starters. Hmm of course it's not as exaggerated as that (or at least i hope not), but the general idea is there.

And i'd admit, my personal need to get out frequently (re: at the very least, once a year) from here for a sufficient (re: at least two, unhassled weeks) break has been one of the key factors behind me constantly saying that i don't see myself in this job for too long a period of time - it's too monotonous and restrictive for me in that way - how to trek across Europe/ do a roadtrip across the States (of course i'd need to learn how to drive first for that one) like that?

At the same time, there's the possibility of being called to other things of a less secular nature by then, something that has been at the back of my mind ever since Urbana - but for that think the next few years would entail a lot of (particularly spiritual) change on my part - ah but these are still early days yet so won't go too into that now.

In any case, the past two weeks have been real helpful in helping me to put into perspective what i'm about to get into - real thankful for that cos think that's something i needed in the wake of all that's been going on recently - so the next two weeks ought to be real exciting =)

wanderlust

The Vietnam trip was by and large my first real experience at backpacking (or at least as close to backpacking as i've ever been on - with the actual procurement and usage of a backpack playing a big part in that) - typically my travels (or at least those of the non-family/non-school trip variety) have fallen into either the shamelessly-invite-self-to-stay-with-relatives/family-friends or the pay-a-premium-and-share-a-proper-hotel-room variety - i.e. i'm more used to slightly more atas accomodations (and more importantly, washroom facilities) when it comes to traveling.

But basically by the end of the Vietnam trip, i realized that i can easily go down a scale when it comes to traveling - the important thing is more the new places seen than the place you stay in, unless of course you make your hotel your destination like those atas places you see on discovery travel and living...

Eh so anyways, even during the trip and since coming back a whole host of places have popped up in my head which i would like to go to in the near future (i.e. before stuff like backaches and joint pains make more rigorous travel a non-option). What great timing that this happens at the same time as my schedule is about to get a whole lot less flexible in the long term, but ah well, we can always dream eh...

My main criteria is that the place must interest me (like duh), and if a language that i'm at least a tad familiar in is spoken there that's an added plus (except for mandarin of course, which i'd rather not use at all). Don't necessarily have to backpack there, more atas types of travel is definitely an option, as long as got enough $ - anyways Vietnam has taught me that i don't really like to shop, so which means more $ for other stuff, like eating =)

In random, indulgent order:

1) Visit the 21 states in the US i've yet to visit - those i'm especially keen on are Ohio (although that's almost solely cos i want to go here); Alaska (cos i want to go on a cruise far away enough from S'poreans who will storm the buffet lines and has more interesting and new places to call port in than Melaka and/or Phuket); Colorado (for mountains and skiing); Vermont (for fall scenery and Ben & Jerry's) and Wisconsin (well it's near enough to Chicago, which is my favorite big city in the US, and i don't mind stuffing myself with cheese). How convenient that they all are relatively far away from each other eh - (as in they don't touch each other...). Bah.

2) Revisit Chapel Hill, and old friends, and at the same time see more of NC, especially the mountains which i didn't see at all, maybe hike at least a fair bit of the Appalachian Trail too...

3) Go around the Philippines - hike the rice terraces, swim with whale sharks, chill at the beach in Boracay/Palawan, chocolate hills (how can you go wrong with a place called chocolate hills?) - hopefully by the time i get back there i'll have enough command of the language to live up to my appearance...

4) Some kind of backpacking trail around Europe - either around France (where i'll hopefully be able to cope with the language), the central and eastern parts (i.e. funky ex-Communist countries), or Scandinavia and the surrounding regions (where i know a couple of people, who hopefully still know me heh) - this of course, will take far more time than methinks i'll ever have available in the next few years, but at least speaking at this point in time this is enough reason for me to take a break once my bond is up hmm...

5) (if got less time and $) go around Thailand, since i can speak enough Thai to make me wish i was there instead of Vietnam during the trip owing to communication problems.

6) South Africa (just cos i want to go to Sub-Saharan Africa, and this is the most accessible part of it to go to)

7) Mauritius (not cos of it's proven honeymoon potential, but cos it's a French-speaking place with great scenery)

8) Tunisia/Morocco (eh cos French is spoken there and i want to go to North Africa too - yes i'm that predictable)

9) South America (if ever i get to picking up Spanish - just to cover another continent - i can do without going to Antarctica - too expensive and unfeasible)

Heh maybe that'll do for now - don't want to get to indulgent and unrealistic, and anyways i've been blessed with the opportunity to go to a lot of places as it is... And i don't want to rake up unnecessary carbon emissions... But still, any takers to any of the above?

If not, i'll find my way to these places myself... Hopefully... Eventually...

21 more to go

So at the start of the last sem i'd played around with taking various classes and realized that for once, at last i had the opportunity to end (exams) early, and real early at that, if i chose classes in the interests of fulfilling that end. And while i'd hardly advise the promise of an early holiday to be the main consideration behind the choosing of classes, i'm nevertheless glad that it worked out for me (eh or at least i'll say that until final results come out...)

But back to the story, actually even after settling classes and hence exam schedule, i had no ideas in mind as to what i may have wanted to do once exams ended. And then randomly one day i came across an online advert on cnn.com by SIA with the promo fare to Houston, and to cut a long story short, the very reasonable fares plus tanking US dollar were enough for me to finally decide to get tickets. Furthermore, the final destination was a place in the US i hadn't been before (which is always a key factor) - so why not eh?

Well i could list in detail all that went on but i guess that's rather self-indulgent and anyways i can't remember all the itty bitty details. In lieu of that will just recount random cool things that come to mind.

1) As much as i don't like the elitist bent of SQ (case-in-point: the changing of the direct to NYC/LA flights to an all-business class configuration in order to rake in bigger bucks), (at the risk of being cheesy) it really is a great way to fly - and after suffering through United Airlines to the US the past few times, SIA really is a revelation. The in-flight entertainment is really a cut above - i've this thing against paying the prices we have to pay to watch movies in S'pore, so to watch (allow me to recount) Sweeney Todd (not bad); Ratatouille (only thing i didn't like was the bad French pronunciation); Bee Movie (which is a D movie imho - don't watch it!); Juno (finally!); No Country For Old Men (creepy but good); Dan in Real Life (underrated); plus lots of good tv stuff like Pushing Daisies (wish they'd show it here) and Arrested Development (i miss it) for free (ok, not really free, but at least it seems free) was great. I almost didn't sleep both on the way there and back simply cos there was so much to do. Regret not getting a free S'pore Sling just to see what's the big deal about it...

2) Honestly, i expected New Orleans to be in a more depressed state than it was, in the wake of Katrina and all, but then again, i didn't get to go out of the tourist area, which was relatively less affected. All in all, it's a real interesting city, although the great nightlife is not really my type - the famous Bourbon Street there is dotted with strip clubs, which, to put it discreetly, make it clear in their storefronts what services it is that they provide. That's why i only went down there in the day and avoided it at night. Can't imagine how my father would have reacted if he was there haha.

3) And for all the good food that the city is famous for, unfortunately a lot of it has seafood (which i guess comes as no surprise since it is right by the sea), so didn't really get to sample much of that... Whatever food i did have was good nevertheless.

4) Never seen so many smokers as i did there - in the street, one really could not look in any direction without catching at least one person smoking. It seemed to me that people were either smoking or about to take a smoking break.

5) Wish could spend more time than just one and a half days in Houston - there's actually a surprising amount of stuff to do there. Thought i got a real good deal on the Hyatt there, until i realized that over the weekend, downtown is by and large a dead zone. Never really got out of the central area either. But ah well, it was good anyways.

6) Quite cool how an ex-NBA player ended up to be my cab driver to the airport - and a pretty good one too (three-time all-star) - and at least the minimal bball knowledge that i had was enough to get him really excited that this foreign asian dude knew so much haha.

7) The quick one-day visit to South Bend was really cool - i just like to go to places where the typical S'porean tourist would never go to - and this was one of them. Notre Dame has a real beautiful campus, the nicest i've seen so far, and the spring flowers were real pretty. Also, what cool timing that i was there during the primary elections, so i got to see the electoral process there close-up (during the midterms in '06 there was little action in Chapel Hill - and coincidentally the NC primaries were on the same day).

8) For the record, while i was there i became an Obama supporter :)

9) Even though i've been to Chicago before, and very recently too, am glad managed to go back - not just because there's quite a bit to do there, but also for the company. Think by now i can make my way around the city pretty well without ending up lost.

10) The highlight of Chicago was of course finally getting to watch Wicked (the soundtrack of which i'm listening to right now) - i dunno why i didn't watch it the other time i was there, but anyways, it was just a great experience. As many times as i've seen Defying Gravity on the screen, nothing beats seeing it in front of you on stage. And For Good? *tears* I wonder if it will ever reach here (and not with a third-rate Aussie production).

11) Ate so much there - portions are so big to begin with, and then i had to help my mother to finish up her portion most times (cos i don't like to waste food). Never dumped so many times and so much in a day before (ok wtmi i know)

12) And of course, for frivolity's sake, i also added three more new states to my list (Texas, Louisiana and Michigan) - so we're up to 29/50 now =p

*) Although of course that also meant that there was an awful lot covered in just ten days - oh what i wouldn't give for a nice, relaxed holiday unconstrained from annoyingly constricting S'porean timetables...

Hmm looks like i listed a lot of stuff in detail anyways...

Ah well, in any case, hope to go back again, and particularly back to NC, sooner rather than later. Yup Carolina still on my mind...

And of course what 17 May post isn't complete without a happy birthday greeting?

from across the earth

Ok after a day of flying and sleep depravation (due more to the uber-coolness that is KrisWorld on SQ than due to problems with sleeping while flying), am now in a Houston airport area hotel (the town is called, believe it or not, Humble), using the free wireless - hope everyone's exams are coming along fine! Will talk more about my own abrogated exam period and flight when am less tired and don't have a 6:15am flight to New Orleans the next day to wake up in time for. Currently my eyes are as red as they were just after i finished writing thesis - heh talk about same condition, totally different cause =p

Visit Philippines 2008

There's a histo paper due in just over a week's time which better judgement urges me to continue (though so far have just been doing some reading - no planning or writing) working on, but i've decided rather to ramble on a bit about other stuff and we'll see where this leads to...

Well i've been meaning to talk a bit about my recent trip back to the Philippines for like the longest time and then some right - well just the other day i heard about the bomb blast at Glorietta in Manila, and it troubled me quite a bit, cos especially ever since i came back from there i've been trying to push the Philippines (apart from Mindanao at least) as a safe and worthwile tourist destination, touting, among other things; the tight security at malls. Well, obviously that tight security still fell flat this time round.

Had taken a pic of the Atrium at Glorietta
(the mall complex where the blast happened) when i was there

In any case though, i'd still say that a great deal of the security and safety concerns that many people have about traveling to the Philippines are stretching it a bit. Media reports tend to give the impression that the entire country is a no-go zone cos it's unsafe, but that's really not the case. The south - Mindanao island and all that's below it - yes perhaps the security situation there may be more questionable, since that's where the hive of seperatist/terrorist activity is (although even within the island there are places that are still relatively safe). But much of the rest is really pretty safe.

Ok, maybe after the latest blast Manila may not be everyone's favorite place to go to (and it was not really one of mine even before the blasts) but it does have good shopping (eh and yup i know that's exactly where the bomb hit) - but seriously, the malls there are ginormous (if that word has been accepted into general parlance yet). And beyond Manila there's a lot worth seeing - i personally regretted spending so much time in the Metro Manila area (even though i was with relatives) and hence not seeing enough of the rice terraces to the north - and to that end a return trip in the near future is definitely a goal of mine.

Eh this picture really doesn't do the terraces justice, but it'll have to do for now

That actually was to me one of the main highlights of going back - the chance to go up to Ifugao Province and take in a bit of the scenery and all. My cousin put me in touch with a local pastor who is involved in work with many of the tribal people in the surrounding hills, and so he showed me around the terraces and put me up at his place for the night. What i was really blessed by though, was his sharing with me a bit about his ministry - stuff like Bible translation and hiking to various villages to screen the Jesus film, among other stuff. The stereotypical awareness of how much i'd taken things for granted in S'pore hit me - yup and to that end this song came to mind (taken from here btw - and since it's more than 100 years old i shall assume am not infringing on copyright restrictions by putting the lyrics here - is that the way it works?):

'Tis the gift to be simple, 'tis the gift to be free,

'Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be,

And when we find ourselves in the place just right,

'Twill be in the valley of love and delight.

When true simplicity is gain'd,

To bow and to bend we shan't be asham'd,

To turn, turn will be our delight,

Till by turning, turning we come round right.

The true simplicity of things there is in stark contrast to the wanton (not the mee) excesses that seem to constantly confront us here in S'pore and in many other parts of the world, and it has really brought me to a point when i wonder how essential is all the excess that we have (am talking within the sphere of the church here, though it extends to society in general).

So anyways, this aspect of ministry really got me thinking about stuff - and i'd like to think that this is something that i would be open to doing if the Lord ever calls me to it (although there'll be a great deal of language-learning to do first haha). Pastor Ardo did say that if things allow for it, maybe one day i could accompany him as he goes about one of his trips - that got me excited (though of course it really is as the Lord leads la - dun want to go just because it sounds cool).

And of course, this aside, i'm really keen on going back real soon (maybe a grad trip? though i'd like to do this on top of another trip to another, more distant place) to hike around a bit of the rice terraces [the terraces i went to were the most accessible ones, and coincidentally (or not), also the least fascinating ones] - there's a far more ulu yet still nearby town called Batad with far nicer terraces along with other cool (literally) stuff like waterfalls and all which i'd like to hike to the next time. And maybe while i'm in the Philippines can see some other stuff like the Chocolate Hills (nope, sorry Debs, they're not made of real chocolate =p) and Yoda's close primate relative. And of course this whole post is so tourist brochure-y for a reason - am also advertising for any possible travel companions - do give it a thought ya =) I can settle most of the arrangements and also communicate with anyone who doesn't speak English with my (laughable) Tagalog (seriously, while i was there, everyone thought i was a local - and hence always talked to me in Tagalog - leaving me smile embarassingly and mutter whatever i could in reply - which usually amounted to "yes", "no" or "no more")... Anyways, if and when this happens, it'll be in May 2008 earliest so there's plenty of time to consider...

Let me know, salamat po ;)

plan b

So it's the beginning of the weekend and all, and i'd been meaning to finally try and recap my recent trip back to the motherland over here (not as much for others to read as for me to be able to have something concrete for me to actually recall what happened there in the distant future...)

Alas, circumstances have made it such that it is way past the time when my brain is normally capable of such deep recollective and reflective thought, so the aforementioned post will have to wait till another day for it to reach fruition. Instead i'll stick to random thoughts over the past couple of weeks.

The recently concluded summer break has in certain ways been anything but, owing to the amount of stuff that i had on my plate from both moving house and then settling in (which is, as always, a work in continual, and i fear eternal progress); as well as from cf stuff (which has thankfully been more enjoyable, but still time-consuming and tiring). Still, however, i'm glad it was, when all is said and done, a fulfilling one, not only due to the timely and sorely-needed quick escapes from S'pore to our friendly ASEAN neighbors; but i guess due to the stuff that contributed to busyness as well...

When i was recalling the year past and how i missed things that happened then, one thing that i forgot to mention was how last year's national day was my favorite one in a long time. Um, unfortunately, it was precisely because i was out of the country that it was my favorite one. Yeah (and i hope the people up there in charge of the national pottery don't take offense if they ever should read this) i'm sorry but i'm just not a fan of huge outward displays of patriotism. My personal take is that resources could be far better spent elsewhere, and particularly not spent on things like the commissioning of atas nat'l day songs that seem to be less your love for the country than a lesson in world geography cum a rubbing it in to the average S'porean who probably counts the occasional weekend trip up to Genting or even JB as a real treat that some of us (um and i readily admit i'm one of them) just have been blessed to have it much better or the choreographing equally atas mass display programs that seemed more a showcase either of unwilling or, worse yet, alarmingly enthu parade participants with drag queen outfitting and makeup (more befitting perhaps of The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert than of a country's birthday celebration - and yes, freaky red fish-man, i'm talking about you here...) than the retelling of the S'porean past.

It's not that i don't like this country (though once again i'll readily admit that many people love it more than i do), but rather exactly because i do that i shudder to see how it celebrates its birthday each tacky year after another. Well, if there's anything i am happy about from this year's festivities, is that the engineers played a key role in its execution, and that the guy in charge, the current CEO, is a real nice guy whom i respect from the time i was still serving. And if there's anything that i'm even happier about, it's that he was not tasked to do this five years ago, for if so i might be the one frustratingly burning weekends and then some for an event i don't really care much for...

And so now school has started... As i've probably mentioned somewhere before, i'm really thankful that my workload this year isn't that bad after all, owing to one times favorable exchange last year which cleared me of 37.5% of a typical honors year workload. That's freed up much deeply-treasured time for lots of other things.

It hasn't been all roses though. My classes (especially the honors ones), while hardly as bad as i thought they would be, are still nevertheless a challenge (for one of my classes, i nearly freaked out when i entered the room early and lo and behold the lecturer was talking to one grad student in Mandarin - i immediately put my bag down and went outside to check the room number, and it was correct - but it turns out that he was only talking to the student in Mandarin cos i guess more efficient communication could then be carried out - the proceeding lecture, save for the occasional, incomprehensible cheng yu here and there, was thankfully in English). The future of any possible thesis looks as grim as ever since yours truly is too indecisive thus far to narrow down a topic in any way (although the deadline is still weeks away, i know i'll procrastinate heaps) And the other day, i got so tired after four days of continuous activity, late nights and early mornings, that i think my energy level just fluctuated downwards drastically, so for the first time in my living memory i skipped cg to just go home and rest. I guess it's still early days yet though, so there's the unavoidable slow adjustments that have to be made...

Revisiting Khao Lak

I've been meaning for a long time to talk a bit about my time in Thailand earlier in the break, and finally now provides the perfect brief repose between loads of stuff to do in order to write a bit yup so here goes...

Well just to clarify, while i did go up to Thailand, i did not step a single foot into Bangkok, a place that despite my more than two months in total spent in Thailand i have yet to really visit apart from Don Muang, and which i'm really in no hurry to visit either cos i'm not really a shopping person (or at least not there) and i'm not a fan of crowds or traffic too. And since those are the three things i immediately associate with Bangkok, there's no real reason for me to go there is there...

I also did not go to Phuket - while my flight did land there, upon landing Clement and i immediately went up to Khao Lak in Phang Nga province, about a 90 minute ride north of Phuket. Now, Khao Lak is far less of a tourist trap than Phuket will (hopefully) ever be, especially so in July, which is smack dab in the middle of the tourist off-season in Khao Lak; this suiting me and my aversion to huge crowds just fine.

Well, as you can see from the above picture, Khao Lak now has some form of a Tsunami evacuation system in place, and for good reason too. It was one of the worst-affected areas of the Thai Andaman coast during the Boxing Day Tsunami of 2004, with tourists and locals alike numbering in the thousands being killed, and is still in the process of recovery from that devastation really. As i was strolling along the beautiful expanse of beach, i came across several simple memorials to those whose lives were lost that day. And there are still several places in the area which have obviously not even been touched since the Tsunami hit - and hence they lie abandoned and overgrown with creepers.


Observe those waves (which look far tamer than they actually were). Now imagine wave upon wave countless times more powerful than those you see relentlessly pounding the coastline and all in its path. Can you? Well i could barely imagine it myself. But basically in considering that, i was reminded of the awesomeness of nature, and yet in fact that our God is the Lord and Master over it all. My room was facing the beach on the third floor, and Jeremy tells me that in fact the waves actually swept through the second floor, which is a good (but my estimation is bad) twenty meters above the sea level as i observed it. That's just mind-blowing man...

Well up till now recovery work has been steadily going on, and it appears as though within a year or two things should be back to the way that they were before. The human side of this tragedy did present itself to me, albeit in a truncated manner, during church on Sunday, which Jeremy brought us to. The female pastor was thanking a visiting mission team from NJ for coming and then she broke into tears, clearly deeply thankful for all the help that has poured in from abroad to the devastated Phang Nga area in the wake of the tsunami. That, i thought was part of the essence of being a Christian - to help out those in need, sharing the love of Christ as He once did and still does, be the recipients believers or otherwise, and all to His eternal glory...

Hmm now on to less weighty matters - i remember first tasting Thai-style ice cream during MEET last year, and i was hungry for more... Well, the perfect opportunity afforded itself on the first afternoon there when the ice cream man came by in his motorcycle. The beauty about this is that it's so simple - just Thai coconut/pandan/chocolate ice cream topping glutinous rice, peanuts and jelly - yet oh so delicious... And all that for just 10 Baht =)

I was also somewhat pleased with myself that my less-than-rudimentary command of Thai, almost totally acquired during MEET, did come in quite useful, especially when it came to ordering food (mee nam prik mai?). I always try not to draw too much attention to myself whenever i'm abroad, and speaking even a bit of Thai sure helps along that vein. It helped even more that i look more Thai than i ever did before for obvious reasons (or maybe not so much Thai as Muslim - that's what the immigration officer asked me...) so i could blend in a fair bit...


My (almost) life-long trepidation towards being bitten a leech, which has manifested itself ever since i watched Stand By Me, and which i had somehow escaped through two years of basically being at least knee-deep in water during NS, finally reached a head when we went to explore a local waterfall, which was a fairly long trek in to. By the time we made it back to the car, i had found a total of four leeches on my feet, with one of them (the one above) biting me for good measure. Um but obviously i wasn't too alarmed since i took the time to take a picture of it before it was plucked off. Heh well at least i can cross off getting bitten by a leech from my to-do list =p


So i've barely scratched the surface of what actually went on during this trip, and hence i've barely done it justice... But anyways i'm thankful for this trip for so many reasons - the friends, the sights (that's James Bond Island from The Man with the Golden Gun behind us btw), the food (phet mak mak) etc... And one other thing is that this trip was not of the usual touristy variety, but i got to see the social aspect of things there, for lack of a better term. The post-tsunami setting of the place somehow provided for me the perfect backdrop for a fruitful time spent with God, and i really dunno how to say more about it than that =)...

Nandito na kame (and i sincerely think that's wrong somewhere...)

Yup so i'm finally here, ten years after my last visit, and lots have changed since then, hardly the least of which is my appearance, which now looks much more local (i.e. Filipino) than at any other point in my life (and come to think of it, since i've been now identified as a Malay, a Thai, a 'non-Chinese', and a Filipino in Malaysia, Thailand, S'pore, and the Philippines respectively, i've more or less concluded that i'm acquiring more of a native Southeast Asian identity, and this at the expense of a Chinese one). The downside of it is that people talk to me in Tagalog and expect me to respond fluently when all i can do is shake my head and utter little token phrases like "wala" and "hindi pa." I'm almost tempted to utter something in my significantly better (ok, maybe that's pushing it a fair bit) command of Thai and hold on to whatever hope that they might speak that instead...

Hmm anyways i realize that there's so much i want to say here that has taken place ever since the month started, stuff regarding VCFFOC, Thailand trip, CGL Training etc; which i dunno when i'll get a chance to recall and subsequently to write about...

But anyways,while i can remember what i can remember about the Philippines, i'd better note it down while i have the chance to.

Eh actually there hasn't been much so far. Today i explored but a fraction of the countless number of really giant malls there are in the Metro Manila area. You think that vivocity is big? Well, then you haven't seen any one of a large handful of giant malls that connect with one another like one giant air-conditioned Orchard Road. There's another mall near where i am in QC that stands alone (ok not really there's an equally big SM next door that i haven't even been into) but definitely is bigger than vivocity already... And i've yet to go to SM MegaMall, the largest mall in Asia when i last was here; and SM Mall of Asia, the new holder of the title of the largest mall in Asia...

Currently i'm trying to plan for a trip up to the mountains. The rice terraces, to be exact. Now if you know me you'd know that planning of any sort is hardly my cup of tea. And now to make things even less comfortable for me i'm planning a trip for me and me alone - no co-traveller to shift the blame to or to commiserate over should anything go wrong. Of course thankfully i've some prior info and what not but still this is a monumental achievement for me, and hence if i really am able to pull this off, methinks i'm gonna be quite pleased with myself... However, that's a big IF, so i dunno how things will turn out in the end... So all i can say is, stay tuned...

the unearthly hour

How does yours truly end up wide awake at four in the morning, and furthermore having had been so for the past twenty or so hours? How is it that from one look at his face he looks like a long-abandoned castaway on Survivor? How is it that he has not brushed his teeth in two days, nor eaten any dinner the previous night apart from five cream crackers?

It's a real long story you know, but to cut it short - it all has to do with that old bugaboo - moving house. Every new day, its annoyances unfold. Filling my mind, with more grumbles untold (well, at least until now, although i shall keep it real short since now i do feel sleepy again...)

It's been a real tiring couple of days for us all,
with Bingo not being an exception...

By the end of moving most of the stuff to the new place,
this is what greeted me when i tried to enter my room.
"How do i enter thee? Let me count the ways... Eh, none!"

Hmm maybe i'll elaborate more once this day's sleep catches up with me...

nyet, not yet...

The other day the family went down to Borshch in Serangoon Gardens for dinner. Once upon a time we used to go there at least once a month, but that ritual ended when we moved over to the East, and it's been years since i last went there... But going back there reminded me of the umpteen times i'd go there and order the same thing time and time again - the $12.80 (now $13.80) set dinner with appetiser choice of shrimp cocktail or caviar with egg (no prizes for guessing which one i went for); soup choice of borshch or cream of mushroom (choosing the former is a no brainer - if they name the restaurant after the dish then it had better be good...); main course choice of several things which i barely remember cos my eyes would almost always automatically be drawn to the sirloin steak (first medium, then later in life, medium rare after i discovered the joys of semi-bloody meat - and i never contracted mad cow disease or salmonella, dun worry); drink choice of coffee, tea, coke or sprite (almost always took sprite - though now they've switched allegiances and offer pepsi or 7up instead); and dessert choice of fancy pancake or peach melba (and with the 'fancy' part of the former amounting to it being filled with banana, i'd automatically go for the latter...)

Um, looks like i got carried away there heh... But my point is that the food is not exactly the best around. It's really just above average at best (one thing that never changes is the ever-yellowing newspaper article from some time in the 80s promoting the restaurant, proudly displayed on one of the walls). But the draw of the place (such that by the end of the visit i resolved to go to the place a little more regularly - at least once a year...) lies for me purely in the nostalgia value that it holds. I've been going to that place since before it moved and was about half the size of what it is now - which is probably like since p1 in 1990 (which i now realize is a heck of a long time ago - after finding out that Keisha Castle-Hughes, the once 13-year-old star of Whale Rider was both born that year and also had her first child a couple of months ago) or even before that, and those memories all came flooding back when i went back there... Like how that's the only place i recall ever having eaten frog's legs (tastes like chicken). To top it all off, one particular waitress whom has been there for as long as i can remember took one look at me while we were ordering, and then before she left asked if i was the small boy who once upon a time was half my present height and who once frequented the place...

It's all but confirmed that this thurs nite will be the last night spent at my old house. However, that's dependent in large part on whether i can muster up the necessary willpower to pack everything by then. Sheesh. In the meantime, i'm continually unearthing stuff postmaturely like quiet time material that i had thought had not arrived but in actual fact was hidden under a pile of paper on a shelf somewhere, or old vouchers that expired months, if not years ago... It's almost like i'm conducting some sort of archeological dig...

Really need to settle travel details - i was just wondering if i might need to take a new passport picture, but i guess the aforementioned waitress recognizing me from more than half my life ago puts paid to those thoughts... Just hope that when i go through immigration wherever i am going to, no one will think i'm a terrorist...

Of moving near and far...

So moving has been going along really slowly - i don't recall taking so long to move stuff the five previous times - but then again i'm not complaining cos 1) i'm still reluctant to finally leave the old house n 2) in that vein i've been taking ages to pack things up.

After one grueling morning of emptying cupboards and binding random flat-surfaced thingies up with raffia string, i took a quick scan of the room only to realize that it looks almost exactly the same as it did previously. Which means that there's still an awful lot of packing to do. Methinks that when push comes to shove i'll do just that - shove any possession of mine that has to be moved into any available container which looks able to carry the stuff without damage over to the new place. That may be a little tricky, considering especially the sheer amount of clothing there is to handle. Most of it is stuff that i never even wear and hence perhaps is more suited to be given away (and why do we only give away used/unwanted clothes to say disaster-ravaged people in a less wealthy country and not brand new stuff? But that's another issue for another day). And i am so certain that once the shift is complete i'll look at all the random bundles and boxes stacked all around my new room and have no clue where i put this and that, ending up having to ransack everything again in order to find the stuff... Ah the joys of moving house...

While doing this there have also been various meetings to go for along with other ancillary activities. They might take up more time but i actually look forward to each one of them in a sense, since they imply time away from the boredom of packing stuff. So they feed my procrastinator's nature perfectly. Eh which also means more last-minute moving stuff to be done...

And together with all of this i've been trying to plan any sort of trip that will take me out of this island (ok not any sort of trip - have turned down enough other options to make that statement terribly untrue). There's the oft-mentioned frequent flyer miles that i can use, but of course i'm having so much trouble trying to use them for the trip that i want, which means that i may have to redeem them elsewhere, which means another trip later in the break (basically whenever's not taken up by CF activities/planning for them). Looking through all the travel sites, i'm reminded of how while at UNC i did so much air ticket shopping online as well - and now how in comparison the destinations that i've to choose from are so much less appealing than the ones in the States were. Chicago v. Hong Kong, Washington D.C. v. Bangkok, Atlanta v. Ho Chi Minh. How to compete (eh i know i'm not a fan of travel to Asia so maybe to most sure can compete)? Yup for me, i sometimes wish that S'pore were nearer some more attractive (to me) places so travel to them would not have to be so expensive... Then again, i guess many people in those parts that i am really interested in visiting might wish the same for places in Asia...

Here's something to put you (or maybe just the guys) off your breakfast - i still squirm just thinking about it...

S'porean Wasp?

Last night i went for the second of three weddings i was invited for over the course of this week. This one was somewhat different since it was not a CF but rather an army affair. One of the fellow specs from my platoon in unit, to be exact. I got to see several people (including the groom, actually) for the first time since ord, which was quite cool. Apparently i look way different from a mere three years ago, since Hong Lee (the groom) gave me a weird stare and thought i was an intruder when i said hi initially, took him a couple of secs to realize who i actually was, which was quite farny...

The wedding itself was a great experience for me. For starters, it was the first non-Christian wedding i recall ever attending, so i found things quite different and unfamiliar. Furthermore, after three long years i was suddenly thrust back into a generally local mandarin/dialect speaking environment - apart from David, another spec at the table, everyone else was far more comfortable talking in the aforementioned languages. It made me recall how much people last time had to accommodate me language wise, since it was only then that i realized that the majority of Singapore does not speak English as the first language of choice, and therefore only then that i made a conscious attempt to try and better my command of Chinese languages (to little success, might i add)... Yeah so all in all it made me realize that my social circles still largely are of the Christian, English-speaking variety, which gave (and still is giving) me a lot to think about... (but then again, i'm not exactly of the elite, uncaring face variety so maybe that's a step in the right direction...)

Added to that was a simple question that Derrick, another spec, asked me while he was giving me a ride home. He asked me something to the effect of "eh Matthew, i noticed something. How come last time you never invited us to church?" Oh boy and if i could just describe the sheer impact of the figurative tonne of bricks that fell on me when he asked that... I didn't even know how to answer him.

Yup, a short three years ago i really was a totally bochap Christian who would not even consider inviting anyone to come to church. My involvement in spreading the Gospel at that time was strictly limited to the (and i hate this term) 'lifestyle' school. But then again people may have known i was a Christian then, but upon closer examination the 'Christian' nature of my lifestyle then came into serious question... A poor testimony. Something i'm definitely regretful about till today. Anyways, things may have changed somewhat since then, but still, i'm not too sure about inviting people down. The importance of sincerity, intentionality, and a Christlike love in so doing is really ringing across my mind now, three things sorely lacking in then. Yup anyways that was a very timely God-given wake-up call for me i must say...

It turns out that Bingo's little fit yesterday was not a once-off, as today the same thing happened yet again, albeit not as seriously as it did the first time. I'm starting to have serious doubts about his level of health, but as i've said previously, we'll just see what happens...

Packing has been going pretty well - today i doubled the amount i've packed. But then again, that equals to filling up the other half of the small box of files i started with like two weeks ago... At least i've more time to pack, since i just received word that we only can move in from the 15th onwards, which gives me one more week to settle stuff.

Think i've decided to forgo catching pirates 3, owing to both bad reviews and laziness... Well, i'm sure if and when pirates 4 comes out channel 5 will trot pirates 3 out as it's latest tv premiere blockbuster... So that still leaves me with only one movie caught this year... Heh.

Am starting to narrow down possible destinations for trip. Parents are going to HK, which i've chosen to avoid like the plague, so no go for that. Phuket/Khao Lak is a big possibility, but even if i go for that i've still some expiring miles that need to be used. Maybe Manila is an option... Ah well. A positive dilemma, i call it, so can't complain...

while the rain continues to fall...

I was intending to get out of the house for a spot of cycling this afternoon, since i've been finding myself rather free and lounging round the house doing nothing much more than sitting in front of the com, eating and sleeping for the good part of the last couple of days. But then the sudden afternoon downpour has put paid to those plans so here i am back in front of the com again... Meanwhile Bingo sits outside in the hallway after i chased him out of my room and closed the door cos he was affected by the thunder and hence was drooling all over my floor.

Well, since i've not been doing much i've actually not much to say heh. Let's see - what was there? Oh yeah i finally got to eat at Astons yesterday and it was well worth the wait. I can't believe i've stayed so near to this gem of a restaurant for so long and have only been to it now. And how convenient that just as i finally experience for myself what so many people have been raving over that i find myself not more than three weeks away from shifting out of this house...

Anyways i decided to try their much ballyhooed (and very tackily-named) ieatSuper Burger and it more than lived up to its billing. Methinks it can compete with the Sutton's double bacon cheeseburger (the one on my current fb profile pic) back in Chapel Hill for the title of best burger i've ever eaten, although admittedly they're of two separate pedigrees. And how ironic that both these burgers have medical affiliations - the Astons burger being put on the regular menu at the recommendation of a local doctor, and Sutton's being a diner that is fronted by a drug store. Whatever the case, if anyone would try these two burgers for themselves, i'm sure they would not question me anymore as to why i've resolved never to eat McDonald's ever again... Aiyah really so wasted that i'm moving house leh - think even after i move i'll be wanting to spend time in the east. Got ecp, got Astons, got friends - that's three up on what i've at my new place...

I've been sorta figuring out what to do traveling wise, as i really have to get out of S'pore for at least a bit before the new school term starts. Have been keeping the option of following the parents to Japan (cos they've to use their miles as well) but well, they're moving at a similar pace of procrastination as i am (now i know where i got it from) so i can't confirm anything on that side. There's also lots of other possibilities but i'm rather fussy when it comes to choosing a holiday destination which hardly helps matters. This holiday also appears to be lacking in enough big blocks of time available for me to be away for. Ideally, i'd like to be away for at least a week but depending on how things go such an extended period out of S'pore may be impossible in July (which is when's best cos there's probably more options available than say for June). Ah i shall just comfort myself by assuring myself that something will work out...

I do wish that i was more daring when it came to planning holidays - like to go to new places which don't speak English, possibly alone, and for an extended period in time. Have been looking at Greg's awesome Eastern European graduation trip itinerary and wondering if i'd have the guts for something like that next year. Of course a trip of that scale would only be possible next year [since think that graduation is one of those life events that warrants one times tua zhong (sp?) trip like that] - the problem being that the dear folks at you-know-where appear to want all those moving on to nie to be available from mid-June, and even for stuff in May, which leaves me with precious little breathing space in terms of planning a big trip of say a month's duration... There's also matters of finding people (if there's any), funding, carbon emissions etc...

Hmm so that's holiday plans for ya. One more pertinent matter at this point in time of course what to do in the year ahead. Hopefully decision for that will eventuate within the next couple of days...

Trust no one will read this before then, so suffice to say be prepared for a big shock if you're watching idol results tonight. I know on my part that i'm done with watching the show for the season =(...

Better late than never

Well i've talked at length before regarding my procrastination regarding getting work done, which has led to me now at midterm break realizing that there's a lot of stuff to do if i'm to get back on the path to academic excellence (haha that's so unrepresentative of the reality, but i just like the sound of it); but i've come to realize that this procrastinating streak in me extends to other areas as well.

One good piece of evidence in support of that is the fact that i just opened my Christmas presents. And not just this year's ones, but in fact some of last year's too. (With regards to last year's ones, i had just opened the flap of the wrapping to see what they were, but i did not actually take them out until today. Additionally, a week or so after coming back i opened up my drawers only to find a significant amount of $ inside - i then realized what they were: last year's CNY $, which i'd every intention of banking in last year but never got around to, eventually forgetting to do so and going off on exchange...

But anyways, i'm looking forward to this break. Of course not because of all the work that i've to do, but for the opportunity to relax just a bit and regroup for the second half of the sem, where hopefully the old academically-inclined matt (haha like real) will be back. It definitely helps that there's not much CNY stuff to do where my family is concerned, even my Chinese half of the family doesn't do much apart from the dinner tonight and the visiting of a grand total of one house tomorrow, which ought to be done by after lunch. Just as well cos i don't really like this holiday much - i'm the kind which left to his own devices wouldn't mind going around dressed head-to-toe in old black clothes throughout the fifteen days just to irk the more superstitious lot...

So in any case, i really have to get quite a bit of work done this break. The first item on my agenda is the much-delayed forum posting. I seriously hate doing this - everyone knows that if not for the participation grades no one would really care about it, but simply because it is graded there's this persistent open secret one-upmanship that goes on, whereby people are basically milking whatever teeny bit of opinion that they have for all its microbial worth (of course i can write this because when i finally do post my stuff on the forum, i'd merely be doing the same). Whatever it is though, those super fake-o formalities that everyone uses in their posts like "here's just my two cents worth"; "hope that i'm correct in saying this" and "these are just my humble opinions" are just so cringe-inducing to me. I guess i've to remind myself about the need to take work seriously, that God calls for us to adopt a spirit of excellence in whatever we do, for His glory.

What to do, where to go for holiday? Will i even have a holiday?

mixed bag

My mind is in what recently has come to be its default mode which is basically chockful of scrambled thoughts so the following is just whatever is off the top of my head...

My house is almost empty for the week, with my parents being in KK (Sabah, not the hospital) for a provincial Anglican pastors' retreat thingy and my brother being away on reservist (which makes me shudder as to when my turn may come). Only ones left are my grandmother and Bingo. Nice to have things somewhat more quiet around here for a change - haven't been having enough quiet moments like this since i've been back...

Well bummer, the Tar Heels lost again, just when i thought we were on the upswing - it's complacency i tell you. Consolation however lies in the news that Duke lost too haha. But in any case, i'm quite amazed at how a couple of months over there can leave me now doing what last time i'd consider to be the unimaginable act of checking out the latest NCAA and NBA scores online on a very regular basis. Scary eh. And since i've become a basketball fan (and boy is it weird even just typing that), it stinks having won tickets to games but not being able to use them. At least i've friends there who can use my tics, but as selfless as i could be, i still would love to be able to catch the game...

Checked my frequent flyer miles - it turns out that i've suffered enough on United over the past few years to be eligible for a free round trip on SQ to as far as places like Istanbul, Cape Town, Cairo or Auckland. Probably will not have time to use them before some of them expire in July though, at least not to places that are so far away, so may settle for Manila or somewhere else nice in the region itself, and use the rest of the miles that still are not to expire for a while another time. Who wants to go somewhere before July? Need to find people to travel with...

I was quietly laughing to myself and grinning widely when i read the article in the papers about businesses not being able to play CNY cds without having first to pay loyalties. Apparently depending on the size of the business fees can reach four-figure sums! Hopefully this means that i'll be hearing far less tacky noise this time round...

Saturday saw me fall asleep from 7 till 11:30pm and again from around 1 till 8:30am, methinks due to accumulated lack of sleep over the week and a general tiredness on many levels. There's just been so much going on that i haven't really had time to sit back and take a breather i guess. Thank God for people He's brought round for me to talk about all this stuff with - things are slowly getting better for me partly as a result of this... However let me again emphasize the word "slowly", though i suppose it's on all counts better than not at all... The need for a better grasp of the concept of God's timing comes across so strongly in times like this...

Wish that self-recharging would come as easily as it does for my cellphone...

Pa ra pa pum pum no more...

While all you folk back home are anxiously waiting to check your results i've already gotten them - a couple of days ago in fact - yup guess there's far less red tape to get through before results are made public here than back home - but anyways for once, and since they don't count for anything except for a pretty transcript guess there's no problem with putting them here for once, just for the record...

Course Id	Course Description	Credit Hrs	Grade
HIST475 001	GR BRITAIN 20TH C	3.0	A-
HIST501 001	GENDER OF WELFARE	3.0	A-
HIST584 001	AM CITY 19TH/20TH C	3.0	B
LING202 001	LANGUAGE CHANGE	3.0	A
MUSC211 004	CORE ENSEMBLES	1.0	A
POLI100 006	INTRO TO GOVT IN US	3.0	B

Semester Statistics			Cumulative Statistics
Semester Hours-Earned	16.0		Career Transfer Earned-Hours
Semester Quality-Hours	16.0		Cumulative Earned-Hours	16.0
Semester GPA	3.513		Cumulative Quality-Hours	16.0
			Cumulative Quality-Points	56.20
			Cumulative G.P.A.	3.513

Yuppers, while admittedly i was again hoping for better grades than this, especially after hearing stories of how nus people have come here and gotten their best grades ever, i guess that taking all things into context (grad classes, relative lack of background knowledge, holiday mentality, scary workload etc) there's really a lot to be thankful for innit... Think that somewhere nearing the exams themselves God was telling me to stop worrying about grades per se but just work for the best, and yup by His grace that's what happened, so by the time the exams did approach i was relatively unstressed about them, and in the end things went ok...

What i find ironic about them is that my linguistics grade is the highest of them all, even better than all my hist classes; when the chief reason for taking it was to escape another low-scoring grade for linguistics back home that would pull everything down... The two Bs - well one was in a tough albeit interesting grad class while the other was for a subject where i was at a comparative disadvantage since i'm not American and it was a class on American government after all, so guess i'm fine with them...

What i'm more concerned about now is annoying cors bidding, something i'm a little out of touch with, not having done it for a year now - managed to get three classes pre-allocated, but i dunno if i want to do all of them though (and it felt quite surreal to access ivle after such a long time btw)... Of most concern to me are the annoying breadth classes that i've to take - can't think of anything i'd be remotely interested in, so i guess i'll have to look for the least boring classes yet still potentially at least one where an S/U won't be necessary since i've two S/U options left but three breadths to take - and to do all this while i'm thirteen hours behind and so not in the mood to do so... Ah but think i'm overstating the issue yet again and when this is all said and done all will be fine so...

Now for non-academic issues - for starters i've resolved never to as far as possible never take United Airlines again (save for when i fly home, of course). This is after another long flight delay has been added to my list of bones to pick with them, which already include two other (overnight) flight delays and two instances of lost baggage. This time it only was two hours, but still having to wake up at 5:30am for an 8:45 flight only to have take-off pushed to close to 11am is not pretty at all...

Am glad to be able to spend some time just relaxing here in my cousin's place here south of D.C. After all the busyness of travelling over the past ten days, this is a good change. Granted i could be up north now in Toronto enjoying cooler weather and the higher possiblity of snow, but think that this is a good time to prepare for Urbana ahead too (where again the forecast calls for no snow, but then again being spoken and ministered to by God ranks far more highly than seeing snow rite...) It was a little strange though yesterday when i was at a family Christmas party when my 16-year-old nephew was introducing me as his uncle...

And speaking of Christmas - i've realized that it's not only pesky CNY songs that irritate me to no end - spending hours in the car driving to and from Boston over the two days when the three of us (SJ, Clement n me) were exploring four states in New England and being subject to dozens of radio stations, all of which intersperse their regular programming with Christmas songs, if not dedicate their playlist to such songs and nothing else; has taught me two things - there's only so much of "Feliz Navidad" i can take, and i cannot bear to hear a note more of any of the nine hundred and forty-six or whatever number of versions of "Little Drummer Boy" there are in existence in this world...

Ah, but on that note, annoying Christmas songs aside - have a great Christ-centered Christmas y'all! (There's twelve days rite, so am not being late in wishing this to those back in S'pore...)

Delayed telecast

(The following is just some of what i've noted down over the past two weeks of limited internet access)

Am typing this at the moment on ms word, since where i am now in the Atlanta area does not have internet access. For memory’s (or lack thereof) sake,I’m typing this first, lest i forget everything at a later date. (And of course when this is finally posted, i’ll probably be in Boston already but nvm that.) But that’s a minor issue, overall the place is great, and Atlanta itself has definitely been worth visiting.

But since it’s been a while, i shall start off where i last left off – finishing my last paper – a take-home due just a couple of hours before i was due to leave the Hill for RDU to catch the plane. As usual i procrastinated to the extent that i was up all the way till around 4:30am trying to finish it (so my last night in Chapel Hill turned out to be the one with the least sleep ever), and then packing the contents of my room into my two bags, which was far worse than doing the paper actually. To cut a long story short there's a lot of reorganization and throwing away to do once i repack my stuff just before i leave, and knowing what a hoarder i am, that’s not gonna be easy at all…

So anyways, got to RDU thanks to a ride from Emily, and then the flight to Atlanta via Charlotte was quite uneventful. The only event took place just after landing, when halfway along the very, very long passageway between the arrival gate and the baggage claim; when i realized that i’d stupidly left my passport in the magazine pocket in front of my seat – fifteen frantic minutes later and that was settled thankfully…

Atlanta itself has been a great experience overall so far – lots of different things so far to do and see (one of the most memorable, though not necessarily the favorite, involved sampling methinks more than thirty varieties of Coca-Cola Company drinks from all over the world at the World of Coca-Cola – i’m not one to drink carbonated drinks usually but the lure was just too great). It has also been a great time spent with the others, and we’re staying in like the coolest place (OM HQ- the Doulos people), which i’m very glad and thankful for…

Tomorrow if all works out well i’ll attempt to cook eggs for the rest for breakfast, since i’m up the earliest anyway, and also since i don’t eat breakfast foods typically, technically i won’t have any chance of poisoning myself should anything go wrong. Heh – but methinks the cooking itself won’t be a problem (i mean, how wrong can one go in scrambling eggs?), the thing that i’m more worried about is cracking the eggs in the first place, since i’ve a bad track record of doing so that involves lots of extra calcium (i.e. shell bits) in the eggs as well as untimely splatterings of eggs on adjacent parties whom I did not know…

Updates – well now i’ve reached Boston, and it turns out that i’ve still limited internet access – the hotel that we’re staying in offers wireless, but it costs $9.95 for 24 hours. Good thing that there’s a cost-free alternative, which is to just go downstairs and use the computers at the hotel business center – less convenient and can’t use aim and skype, but better than nothing i guess.

Today after arriving at the hotel (and toot me nearly left my laptop in the cab this time), we took a walk across the river to Cambridge, where we went and explored Harvard and the surrounding area – it certainly felt quite different from UNC and Chapel Hill, that’s for sure, but it was a very interesting campus nevertheless… Never been this far north so far since arriving in the States, so the sunset’s earlier than it has ever been before (5pm)… The weather’s been quite nice here too – at least it’s quite a bit colder than things were in Atlanta (and as has turned out to be a recurring theme with me, the day we left Atlanta was the last day temperatures were near record highs). All that’s missing now is some snow…

Well after the first day, in the end we decided to rent a car and drive around the area. Admittedly, i was all for it mainly cos it meant that i would be able to add more states to my list; but in any case it was fun whatever way you look at it. The second day we headed down to Providence, Rhode Island, which is really no more than an hour’s drive south from Boston. It’s a nice place, with no really big touristy things, but it was worth the drive in any case.

On the way back we stopped by a giant outlet store. Now, i'm normally not a shopper, not in Singapore at least, but when i’m overseas somehow i become more inclined to purchase things. And this mall was giant – more than 100 shops, several of which i’d be inclined to purchase from – stuff like Nike, Banana Republic, Oakley etc. From browsing through the shops, i found heaps of stuff that i would like to buy. However, it also struck me how consumerist this whole thingy was, and i guess in that sense buying all i wanted would not only be playing up to this, but also not being the best steward of God’s resources. (Also, my already bursting-at-the-seams bags have no room for that much more stuff.) So I tried to limit myself to stuff that i would really need and would be worth it (i.e. forget about US$70 Oakley shades or Teva sandals) – think i still overshopped though, but not very excessively.

Yesterday we drove up north to New Hampshire and Maine, again not more than just over an hour’s drive from Boston. (So in other words, if you want to cover many states in a jiffy, start off from Boston…) The New Hampshire coast was just beautiful – we managed to cover it all since it’s only 18 miles long, and the coastline and the quaint houses and coastal towns was just such a refreshing change and something totally different from what i’ve experienced so far here. The only thing that freaked me a bit was the sheer number of crab claws littering the beach…

Just up north a bit in Maine, we ended up in Portland, the biggest city in the state. It’s another place well worth the visit, though probably not for more than a day, although I’m sure driving up further north all the way to Canada and stopping along the way to soak in the whole New England atmosphere would be a great idea, though one that would take way more time than we had. Again, in keeping with my maritime aversions, my only bone to pick with Portland was the overwhelming odor (at least to me) of the sea, not surprising since the fishing industry’s big there. But everything else more than made up for it…

Leave it to beaver

Got back to the Hill from Charlotte a couple of hours ago, and just managed to finish the work that's due for tomorrow (unless i forgot something, which is definitely possible) - after the past few days of relaxation it's back to classes again and it's certainly not the best of feelings (also cos ate oily and greasy chinese food for dinner before leaving Charlotte which did not sit well in my stomach) but ah well better than not having a break rite...

And well to follow up on yesterday, did end up going to the dam after all - located in the muddy woods behind Greg's house - it was great fun, certainly haven't seen anything like that before. The trek was quite a challenge too - we had to walk in ankle-deep mud at times, with the cold swampy water seeping into my borrowed boots that had convenient slits on each one to allow for maximal seepage. I dunno why i always seem to kena water getting into my footwear - it seems to happen whenever i'm outside when it's raining heavily, and my feet are left a wrinkly mess. Army lagi worse - my training basically had me in at least waist-deep gross water half the time. In fact, the trek reminded me a bit of the time during training when my group and i got stranded in knee-deep water at Tekong Reservoir from sunset till around one/two-ish in the morning - that sure wasn't pretty...

The shadows of myself, Greg's neighbor Peyton, and Greg
standing on top of the beaver lodge at the dam

That one beaver dam caused this much flooding - amazing eh...

More pictures of Thanksgiving break (ooh, and Charleston too) will come once i've time to post them over there =======>

Btw, came back from the break only to have Carol say that i lost weight and SJ saying that i gained weight - dunno what to make of that - i guess i can just average it out and conclude that things are pretty much at status quo =p

Happy exam-doing y'all =)

Thanks has been given

Well, am almost at the end of the Thanksgiving break, and it was definitely a good one - got to experience warm hospitality, good food, funny stories, bowling, more football and basketball-watching in just four days than i've ever done in the rest of my life - that sorta thing and it was a refreshing change from school for sure. Even though it was like just under 20 people from the same extended family and one of me and no one else, still felt very much at home and i'm really thankful for that...

Of course there still was (and is, and is to come) schoolwork to do - whenever any break, be it even for just a weekend, comes my way, schoolwork reminds me of that annoying little mosquito that will just not be killed, and admittedly my work ethic is definitely at its lowest during such periods. There's of course the safety net of pass/fail, but it doesn't feel good nevertheless.

So later this afternoon after church it's back to the Hill and to the reality of a book report due tomorrow and another test on wednesday (and there probably is other stuff which i've probably conveniently forgotten about at this moment). Might squeeze in a short trek to the beaver dam behind Greg's house before that too - that would be fun...

Also realizing that the time has come to start saying final goodbyes to people, don't have more than three weeks left on the hill before winter break starts and i start to go gallavanting around the East Coast (haha seems like i can never get away from the east eh?). Sad - so many people who've made a difference to my time here, and goodness knows if and when i might be back to meet them again of if and when they might pop up in S'pore one of these days...

Later...

See-sawing

Got back from Charleston this evening - it was a very good and enjoyable trip, and convenient break for me too. I actually had intended to update this while i was there since the place we were staying at had free wireless (yes, i had to bring my laptop along, ostensibly to do more work again) but there was basically no time for that, so will be extremely choppy about how the whole trip was like (especially since i've more work to do and probably around seven hours of sleep over the past two nights) and end it here. Maybe i'll talk more about it another time, perhaps once i get the pics up over there =======>

Between now and one pm on Tuesday afternoon (i.e. less than 40 hours) when i go with Greg off to Charlotte for Thanksgiving (which i'm really looking forward to) i've quite a bit of work to do, including a whole book to read that i can't take out of the library to write a review on, which means that i've to try and finish reading it before i leave so that i can get cracking with the writing cos its due once school starts again on next Monday... So once again this leaves me with the surreal feeling of being so near to a fun time, yet so far cos plenty of yucky work stands in its way...

Many people reading this may remember my Great Depression (a historical euphemism for another term, biological in nature that i guess everyone knows so it shall remain unwritten) episode of last sem's exam period. Well i've to report that while i've never been close to as severely moody as that since then, i've been rather off on and off quite a bit here, more so in the past month or so. And as usual, i can't seem to pinpoint what's the cause of it - can be perfectly fine one moment and then *snaps fingers* a perfect grouch the next. And of course since i'm typing this you can probably guess that i'm in one of those moods again now.

Well maybe it's because i just came from Compline at the Episcopal church next door, as i do every Sunday night, and as i was just there reflecting upon the week past and talking to God was just reminded of a lot of trash that i'm still dealing with in my life, recently confounded by certain other new developments which are best left unspecified here. Yuppers. As usual though, it's nothing to be alarmed about (have mentioned many times how i always make things with me sound worse than they actually are...), but i guess it's really more annoying than anything else - which has a lot to do with the fact that i feel that so much of this is a result of a "poor me" syndrome that i tend to both consciously and unconsciously harbor very often... But anyways, one consequence of this is that i've no mood whatsoever to celebrate a certain otherwise important event happening this Tuesday, which is just as well that i'll be out of the Hill by one-ish...

But i'm guessing that Thanksgiving will put me on a mood upswing... Let's hope so *crosses fingers and prays*