Whither the Weather

Some of you may have heard me complain ad libitum about the (imho) overly-warm and humid weather in S'pore and my penchant for cooler climes (which is one reason why i like to holiday in faraway atas places where possible, as well as partly why global climate change vexes me so much and hence why i'm quite environmentally conscious, but that's another story). Anyways last year around this time i was on the last leg of my time in the States - over the holidays after exams i went to places like Boston and St. Louis. And it so happened that in all these places they were experiencing above-average temperatures - fair enough. So i didn't get to experience snow and what not, hardly the end of the world.

Now that i've cable though, and hence watch CNN/Headline News in lieu of Channelnewsasia (cos imho, the latter sucks and i really could not care any less for mediacrap), i've been observing the weather patterns in North America quite a fair bit - and lo and behold, places which i'd visited last year in the Midwest and New England have already experienced crippling snowstorms, stuff strikingly absent when i was there. Not that i'd have liked to be there during such frigid conditions, but it still seems to reinforce the conclusion that i've arrived at, which is that the mercury always seems to head upwards whenever i'm in town. Apart from this prime example, i also recall last year when there was quite a bit of snow in Chicago just the week before i arrived there, which of course had all disappeared by the time i got there, and which reappeared just after i flew back to Chapel Hill. Even when i went back to the Philippines earlier this year, my cousin-in-law told me that there was hail the morning of the day i arrived (of course, i only arrived at night). And there are more examples where those came from... Sigh - how to ever do stuff like skiing like that (and i don't count snow city as a legitimate example)?

CORS bidding is just around the corner, and i'm as indecisive as ever. Experience obviously doesn't breed ease of action in this case... It doesn't help that i never got around to doing the pre-allocation this time round cos i was occupied with other stuff, and so it totally slipped my mind. I'm as fussy as ever when it comes to choosing classes, even though i've only three to choose in total, and i've already decided on one of them... Anyone else is shopping around for a good s/u-able (and hopefully non-examinable) breadth class?

Managed to go down to Esplanade to watch ACJC Choir caroling the other day - got to meet some of the people from my batch as well which was good... Miss those days quite a bit (well ok, maybe only parts of it) - i could still remember a good deal of my parts from the songs, especially since they've by and large remained the same even after seven years.

Yesterday's PRC camp, by God's grace went well - i think that was the only truly sunny day we've had in the whole of this month (and to that end i now have a painful reminder that i musn't forget to apply sunscreen on the back of my neck...), and thankfully no one got injured or anything like that. Once again, just like the prc camp i was at three years ago, i'm pretty sure that i spoke more Mandarin the whole of yesterday than i have in the rest of the year put together. And i was reminded why i'm so reticent about ever taking a holiday in China/HK/Taiwan etc - language frustrations would just drive me bonkers...

I totally concur with what mr brown posted about taxi drivers. Government affiliations aside, i think that it's just not right that basically no matter how bad the situation gets for the drivers, the cab companies basically are hardly the worse for wear, since regardless of how much (or how little) the drivers earn in a day, they still have to pay a fixed rental to the company. Talk about being out of touch. This latest fare increase basically affects the demand for taxi rides, at the expense of the drivers, whereas the companies themselves definitely feel less pain. It's situations like this that make me more sympathetic towards a proper labor movement in terms of unions and what not (and please NTUC so doesn't count). Of course, this has many messy drawbacks, but still nevertheless the drivers deserve to have it better than they do now (and yup, i'm speaking up for them even though they have caused me many an angry moment when i'm cycling).

veto power

Just caught my brother who was surreptitiously dashing up the stairs in order to play his computer game on the family desktop which so happens to be in my room. While when he first started to do this i was more or less begrudging him the right to do this, for the simple fact that this intrudes on my privacy much more than i'd like; i've tried to be more accommodating to his requests as of late, since it is the family computer after all, and i guess he's the right to use it once in a while. So to that extent i've come home after school to find the lights on in my room and him inside using the com and largely ignored it - even though i'm the kind of person who treasures his privacy enough to be alarmed every time i see this happening - so i'll just hang around downstairs until he finishes (and bug him a bit in between).

Ah but i dunno, just now when i saw him trying to play again (for the second time in the day) i shouted a loud "NOOOOO!!!!!!!" and to his audible dismay forbade him from playing again tonight (and the folks were there to help to chase him away as well). Ah well, all i can say is that this incident only goes to show that i need my own room, and the days when i did share a room with him (which are all of just over three short years ago) must have been simpler times...

(And just for the record, my brother is five-and-a-half years older than me...)

Today's work progressed little more than locating stray notes and organizing them into more distinct groups. Hardly as much as i wanted to get done, but then again, Sundays are always i-don't-feel-like-doing-any-work days so... Hope the study week ahead will go well though - realized that especially when compared with some others i've been blessed with quite a bit of time for exam prep so think i ought to make the best use of it as i can...

Well, today's church service was more of the same old same old save for the fact that i only found out today that Pheobe goes to the same service as i do - i had no clue before this... Once again though, i nearly was late cos i woke up late and i'm still not used to not staying right next to church and hence not used to the fact that i've now to travel to church. Think that put me a little off today cos i was not able to have my qt till later, and i tend to not be very spiritually alert before qt. So guess must try and revamp my Sun schedule so that i can find ample time to do qt beforehand...

Glancing through this months National Geographic special report on overfishing - "Saving the Sea's Bounty", along with bearing in mind some of what i''ve picked up from my Global Environmental Issues class has made me even less enthusiastic about seafood - any sea creature that is not a fish is already a no-no for me, but i may add at least certain kinds of fish to that list depending on whether they are fished sustainably. Oh, and whether they stink too =p

It finally didn't rain today, but no point cos i didn't end up doing anything outdoorsy. Not enough motivation to do so. Did however have a good catching-up/sharing session instead, which was very timely for me cos i've had rather a drought of that as of late, and think am the kind of person who requires to bleah things out regularly to the relevant people. Yup so that was much needed =)

I'll miss the east...

this and that

In the mood for randomness so do bear with me...

Firstly, here's a couple of pics:


This was taken at last week's rooftop cg. We had a time of reflection on the sem past and then sharing with one another on those reflections. This is coming in very delayed, but well it took that reflection time for me to realize what a great blessing the cg has been for me not only this past sem, but ever since year one. Especially since i came back though. I guess that the fact that my sorta unique church situation has translated into a lack of any real permanence and rootedness for me with regards to church min at least up till this point has meant that the community that i've in cf and especially so in thursday cg becomes all the more important for me. Yup and if i've ever needed such a community before, i sure needed (and still need) it when i came back cos i was (and still am) rather disorientated and disjointed from S'pore and all the stuff that came along with it, and the cg has given back in ways that i never had fully appreciated (and perhaps still don't)... God's faithfulness to me through the cg has just been so wonderful - it's so humbling and tear-inducing come to think of it...


Um, ok so this is on a totally different subject - was just walking along engin bridge (btw engin bridge seems to be some kind of biodiverse hotspot by nus standards since on top of these cats i also found the giant spider - which is still there btw - over there) the other day when i came across this cat and its three kittens - and it was so cool cos although these are probably just common stray/feral cats it at that moment felt as though i was on some Serengeti expedition and before me was some rare species of small wild feline. So of course out came my camera and voila... Reminded me a bit of my UNC days when the mere sight of a squirrel would coax my camera out before i could say, erm well, "squirrel!". That of course was until i realized that there were squirrels everywhere over in the US, compared to S'pore when i spot one like once a year or so high up some tree... Not enough nuts in S'pore maybe...

As each day goes by, i've become more and more keen on staying on campus next year. It's a combination methinks of being spoilt last sem at UNC when both classes and downtown were a two-minute walk away from my room; honours year coming up which promises to be really busy, and tv mobile getting increasingly on my nerves by the second. Things should work out eventually i hope - nearly screwed up my application cos i keyed in an invalid email address - maybe it's a freudian slip that i attached my nus userid to the usual UNC email. Thankfully the relevant people got back to me so was able to rectify that...

I don't recall having started on revision proper more than a week before my first paper ever before. Somehow i ended up choosing classes that have their deadlines rather early, so actually had nothing else school-related to do but revise from as early as Wed (which i did, and am doing, but very slowly - but hey it's a start right...) That being said, as i've expressed to some random people, i'm prepared to see my grades drop somewhat this sem owing to various complicated reasons, but i know that whatever happens the Lord has been ever-faithful - and i'm thankful no matter what lah (Job 1:21 - "Blessed be Your Name" - comes to mind but i'd hardly think that in Job's situation i'd be as unflinching - was already sad when i lost my old nalgene...)

Will it stop raining here everyday already?

It seems that facebook is starting to catch on here eh - seems really different though from the good old days, so to speak, when i was still over there. And it makes me more sentimental for how things were like last time in a way - for me the primary reason why i have fb (and aim too, for that matter) when i eschew just about everything else is that it helps me to keep in touch with friends outside of S'pore, especially those back at Carolina... But, still i suppose that at the end of the day; plus ça change, c’est la même chose, n'est ce pas?

lost in transition

Well over the past week or so my father has officially moved church over to SAC from SHC, and accompanying it has been a flurry of activity including a range of farewells from the latter, culminating in a pseudo welcome dinner yesterday and church service today at the former. Really neat that they've planned all these stuffies, yup and i must say i could really feel an atmosphere of agape love all around (i feel it in my fingers, i feel it in my toes...)

Not that this is anything new (for me this is my 5th time moving church and subsequently house, my family has done it a couple of times before i was born too), but i definitely feel that as one gets older one feels the change more. I mean, last time i was still like totally blur cos i didn't know any better, but the move over to SHC and now this one have been harder cos i guess now i've more of a life of my own now than, say when i was in p6. I can honestly say that after so many times, having to uproot oneself and find one's own way into a new church setting still isn't any easier, which is why i'm not really 100% confirmed on making the church move along with the family (nor the house move, for that matter, but that one bo pian one...) so am gonna take these next couple of weeks to try and feel my way around the new church and see how things are. Of course, to complicate matters even more, my family was in this church from 1986-1991, so there's a significant number who do know who i am and hence have approached me to say hi (and given me the expected "last time" remarks like "last time you were so small, now so big already!" or "remember my son/daughter? last time you used to always play/fight with each other!"), even if i myself have little if any clue who many of them are cos i was only like 7ish when i left.

Ah well, have to get used to it i suppose. I'll find it expecially difficult to get used to the fact that my church is no longer to be found next door to my house, which has been a happy reality for like close to eighty percent of my life including the past 12 years. Today my mother woke me up at 7am or so reminding me that we had to leave soon in order to reach church by 8am - that's when this hit me... I've been pampered man...

Rain stop already leh can - need to run...

how telling...

Had a bit of a Freudian slip just now. Ok, maybe not really a bit, more like a big one ...

Basically during sharing after cg was sharing with Bo (UNC friend) and Mark about how having Bo around at cg helped to remind me of home. Oops - then i realized that i really meant to say UNC and not home but well it came out so naturally...

Yuppers so i guess that betrays my sentiments a bit, though it's not as if i'm like super attached to the place as compared to here, just part of the transition process methinks. But boy is it a slow transition process...

But in any case, it felt great to be back at cg again - that's something that i definitely missed when i was there - the CF community. Yup.

That's almost enough to make me get over the fact that it snowed on the UNC campus today - dang...

Lost in translation

I'm starting to question the wisdom in having an extremely top-heavy schedule that sees me on odd weeks having tons of classes on both Mon and Tue, a free day on Wed and only two hours of classes on both Thu and Fri and on even weeks finishing all classes save for my Fri 2-4 by Tue... Already the past two weeks without tutorial slots have already been so tiring for me so am a little skeptical as to whether i'd be able to keep it up once the full load comes in next week. But i guess this is also in part due to the unsettled sleep patterns that i've had since arriving back so hopefully once my sleep schedule settles down things won't be so out of whack for me...

Was glad for some sun today - this is to the best of my recollection the first sunny day that i've experienced here since arriving back. Decided to go for a swim and take advantage of the lack of rain while it lasts. That went well, save for the fact that my hair is so long now that whenever my head comes out of the water my fringe is covering a good portion of my goggles such that i've trouble seeing properly. Good thing that there were not many people in the pool just now or i might have banged into someone else owing to poor visibility...

And btw since everyone's asking and while we're on the topic, YES i intend to cut my hair soon, but i'll probably keep it a little longer than it usually is; and NO, i have not cut it yet owing to me finding not enough time to do so...

Studying in the forum is turning out pretty ok, i must say, the only problem being the occasionally bizarre bazaar noise that annoys me from time to time. Like today i was trying to read my orang utan book when i was continually unsettled by loud "YAAAAAA!!!" shouts coming from the martial arts display below. It was such that for the first time ever i used my earplugs in a venue other than an sbs bus (to escape the vile tv mobile) so as to block out some of that noise. Apart from that minor hiccup, however, think i could get used to hanging over there...

Just got via email the sheet music of both a Japanese and a Korean worship song that i learnt at Urbana - the lyrics (when translated into English) are very meaningful, and the tunes of both are really nice too. Too bad the sheet music does not come with the English translation attached, which makes things difficult cos if i want to introduce the songs anywhere i'd hardly want no one to actually know what they're singing about - that would defeat the whole purpose of singing these in the first place (though i'd say that if one didn't know the words the songs would sound very J/K-pop-ish)...

Talking to myself and feeling old...

Yet another rainy day today, and my sentiments semi-echo that of The Carpenters who once sang that "rainy days and Mondays always get me down." Given the current weather trends which are likely to result in another rainy day tomorrow i may just end up double-down as a result of it being both rainy and a Monday... And come to think of it the only rainy days i ever liked were whenever they signalled the cancelling of outdoor pe lessons or army training of some form or other. Think it's pretty ironic how last time i was hoping for rain to keep me out of going outdoors for exercise and now i'm hoping against rain so that i'll be able to go outdoors for exercise - i'm never satisfied, am i...

Have not done any work at all over this weekend. Not much to do for starters, but ah well i was never in the mood for the little that i did have in any case. Guess while i can still afford to do so it's not too bad. I don't even recall what i did yesterday since it probably amounted to nothing much apart from reading Asterix in Belgium (which i've had with me since primary school but never got around to reading until yesterday) and going to my jc classmate Sze-Li's house in the boondocks of Marsiling for a housewarming kinda thingy, where many an old classmate was wondering who was the long-haired dude who crashed the gathering. Enjoyed myself there for sure though - always like reunions of most varieties - met one of my classmates whom i last saw in December 2001 so that was nice...

In the latest chapter of my housing saga it turns out that the Novena apartment is no longer an option which means we're back to the no-idea-where-to-move-to state of affairs which of course continues to bother me to no end. I must admit, however, that i was relieved and even slightly happy to hear that Novena was out of the picture, although the prospect of having no idea where we are moving to isn't much better i would say...

As is often the case, once i open my mouth, the situation changes drastically - this time after celebrating the Tar Heels being ranked #1, they went ahead to lose to the Hokies - i should just learn to keep my mouth shut - for more reasons than this alone...

More moping

It's just about touching a week since i arrived back here, and boy has a lot happened since then - and basically the week has left me quite worn out in all aspects - physically, spiritually, emotionally etc... As usual don't be alarmed when you read this for i am once again probably overstating the seriousness of how things actually are (and honestly, overall things still are way fine), but well the next time in the immediate future you think i look tired then you're probably right, so don't bother to ask...

For someone with a three-day week this week, there's been an awful lot of time spent in school. What's strange though is that i'm spending far fewer time in school than i would otherwise be cos on my free days i've only been getting to school at around lunchtime, compared to before when i'd arrive at eightish everyday regardless if i'd class or not. Guess its all the accumulated lost hours of sleep that i've had over the past couple of weeks that's tiring me out. And the constant rain only serves to make me even more inclined to sleep.

School itself hasn't been too bad actually - i'm pretty much satisfied with all the classes i have, bad timings and late exams not withstanding. Think in fact that this sem has the potential to go quite well in this regard.

Too bad, then, for all the distractions that have been bothering me, including of course the impending move, which continues to irk me the more i think of it. This is about as disruptive an event as i've ever had so far in my life, and i really dunno how things will turn out as the semester progresses and i've to balance work with packing stuff into boxes and all that. And am as unenthusiastic about the new place as i've ever been. Am in fact already entertaining the thought of moving on campus next year when i forseeably could be more busy than i've ever been so far at school, just so as to avoid the commutes to and from the new place - ah but that's not for a while yet...

Ah but have gotten some relaxation at least - finally watched the Queen that day - a show i've been meaning to watch since before Thanksgiving in the States but never was able to - and it definitely lived up to my expectations... And today went for dinner with a friend from army at one of those relatively expensive buffet places in Tampines (the former Pariss) which was in a sense wasted on me since practically half of the buffet was scallops, crab, prawns and the like...

Yup well the next few months definitely have a lot in store for me, and i'd be lying if i were to say that i'm looking forward to it at all. But God has continually been reminding me to stop being bothered by these events per se and look instead to Him - and He will see all these things through somehow... Far easier said than done but guess God never promised us otherwise...

Reverse culture shock

Just under 48 hours since i've arrived back, and i'm definitely still getting used to stuff back here after five months away. Things like how i get into the car and wonder why things look strange to me, and then i realise that the steering wheel is on the other side of the vehicle; or how my ear pricks up whenever i hear a Singaporean accent being spoken, then it hits me that duh, i'm back in S'pore so of course i'd hear the accent again; or like i step into the supermarket semi-expecting nice Christmas music to play over the speakers, only to be jolted into reality with the persistently jarring refrains of gong xi gong xi gong xi ni ah instead...

Yup well i'm glad that i somehow possessed the foresight to book my flight back when i did - not too early as to shorten the good times in NC, yet also not too late as to not be able to catch a bit of rest and settling in before school starts again. And i was also somehow pleasantly surprised that for once UA didn't delay me by too long on the way back (only half an hour or so late, which when put against the rest of my track record with them is pretty decent) so i managed to get back home at a not too unearthly hour, and i didn't even have any baggage misplaced, which is not a guarantee with them, i must say. Did have to fork out $50 for a piece of overweight baggage though, for one bag was 7 lbs over the limit. And this is after a very thorough and very painful process on my party of taking out tons and tons of stuff from my bag that i'd actually have wanted to bring back home with me such as all my books (probably will never look at them at any time in the near or far future, but i'm the clingy sort) which probably would have added another 20 or so lbs to my baggage. Ah but what's done is done i suppose...

Thankfully am not affected too much by jetlag - save perhaps for my stomach, which demands feeding in the morning, something that seldom happens usually. A bit tired here and there, but that should ease off in the days to come...

Most of my weekend was spent lazing around the house while squeezing in an occasional complaint here and there about the oppressive heat and humidity. Have gotten down to unpacking just a wee bit though, and i suspect that my bags will remain largely in the state that they are currently in for quite some time to come. One thing i did spend a lot of time on was retuning the guitar, which had gone down by a couple of whole tones methinks. Also spent lots of time watching some dvds that i bought from the us cos it's far cheaper there than over here.

Today went to church and met up with some of the cell people. Attracted much unwanted attention due to the length of my hair. Practically everyone reacted in the same two-part manner - the first part saying that they liked my hair like that, and the second part asking what my father had to say about it... After service went down to Black Canyon [yup it's moved to just a minute or so from my house, away from Serene Centre (i can imagine why, it's a much nicer place here)] for a bit with the cell peeps. Was great catching up and all... And i just came back from dinner with my grandparents just now - my grandma said that she liked my hair too. Unfortunately she also linked that compliment to her thinking that my side profile now looks very much like that of a girl's...

Sigh so fast and school starts tomorrow. My Mondays feature 10-11, 12-6 days, which is hardly peachy. Must look at it within the larger context of a 3 1/2 day week to be less bitter with my Mon schedule i guess... One thing's for sure though, i'd better get into the habit of doing mon work as soon as i get it, cos the last thing i want is to be cramming it all in to my Sunday, which i've sorta resolved to keep as work-free as humanly possible. Yupyup we'll see how that goes...

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...)

Making ice while the sun doesn't shine

Well, for starters, we've been having quite a bit of freezing weather here recently - and i mean freezing as in 0 deg C/32 deg F and below kinda freezing, not as in the nus lecture theatre/central library 5th floor kinda freezing, which over here is equivalent to unseasonably warm. I've been really digging this weather, while it lasts (only regret is the constant 0% chance of precipitation that always seems to accompany these frigid temperatures so far).

And to that extent, the budding boliao scientist in me decided to conduct an experiment. I filled a plastic bottlecap with water and placed it on the a/c unit right outside my window last night and just let it sit there overnight.

There's my guinea pig sitting outside my window close to a Halloween leftover.

Then i woke up this morning, and the first thing i did was to head to the window and take a look at my bottlecap. This is what i found:

Erm so you can't really see the results from this shot,
apart from what looks like a ghost staring at the camera...

Ah now this shot is better - in short, i made ice outdoors =)

Yupyup yet another cheap thrill i know, but still quite cool eh (literally too)?

Hmm well in other news, it appears that the little malady that i had which has its roots in Thanksgiving never went away - it's been more than a week and i still regularly spew gross yellow stuff every morning, and occasionally snort out yellow and red stuff from my nose (who ever knew that sickness can be so colorful?), and also am alternating between wet cough in the morning and dry cough at night. Through my amateur diagnosis, i've concluded that it's some sort of upper respiratory tract infection, something that i get regularly back home too, which is part of the reason why i'm not really batting an eyebrow regarding this (and btw the illness is hardly as serious as the name suggests, at least in my case). And in any case the occasionally bloody nose (and btw my nose has never bled before in my life apart from the little bit during the time i lost control of my bike down the stairs long ago and bashed my head against the concrete floor) is most probably just due to the dry air. Yeah, so it's no big deal really. And since this is a viral infection, doctors and antibiotics won't do any good - so think i should just let this run its course. Of course, at the same time it still is a deal, no matter how small it is - the important thing for me now is to not let it interfere with my finals.

And speaking of finals, well just for the record:

12-9
LING 202 - Language Change (12pm)

12-11
POLI 100 - Intro to American Government (9am)
HIST 584 - The Promise of Urbanization: American Cities in the 19th and 20th Centuries (12pm)

12-14
HIST 475 - Great Britain in the 20th Century (take-home paper: due 10am)
US 1674/2623 - US Airways flight to Atlanta via Charlotte (2:15pm) *hee*

Can you believe that they've papers that start at 7am here? Thankfully i never kena one of those...

Countdown begins...

In exactly a month's time i'll already be back in sweaty S'pore preparing for the new school term - thirty days - that's just about as long as the MEET Thailand trip earlier this year - but somehow at the start of that one i was like "gosh a whole month - that's soooooo long", and now i'm like "ahhh only a month left till i go back - so short =(" Granted, of course that the activities involved in each month are totally different, but in any case think it's fascinating when you come to think of it...

Well, things are definitely beginning to wind down over here - today was the last day of lessons proper, and tomorrow is reading day (yes you heard it right - reading day - one day, that's it) and then finals start on Friday. I myself have four papers to do, one of them being a take home, and the other three being non cumulative (i.e. they only cover what's not been tested so far this sem, so i'm hardly skipping a beat over them (hence my typing of this post). Should get down to more prep soon though...

I originally had five papers in all, the other was for the really killer gender of welfare course that i'm taking, but somewhere down the line my prof also concluded that this was a really killer course, and to that end during our last class this past Monday she announced that, with our approval, she'd scrap having a final altogether - and you can imagine it didn't take much persuasion for us to approve that... Anyways, as much as i initially was dreading every moment of this class, i'm glad in the end that i took it (and not just because it turned out to be non-examinable) - really broadened my horizons a lot... To celebrate the end of the very gruelling course we all had dinner at Los Potrillos - a very nice but still quite affordable Mexican place here - good food - have already been there a couple of times in fact - had enchiladas done three ways, one of them in mole (moh-lay, not as in the animal) sauce, which in fact contains lots of chocolate - and it tasted really good in fact - first real taste of chocolate in an entree - too bad though, it's got no nuts =p

Some of my gender of welfare class with our prof at dinner
- and speaking of gender, apart from me only one guy and like five girls are missing...

Yesterday had another farewell event - this time dinner with IV international small group folks at Jim's (our staffworker). [I wanted to post a picture here but too leche (sp?) lah - so once again you'll have to look there =======> once i post it] We had really good food cooked by Jim's wife Beth, and good fellowship too - fun - looking back, i'm really thankful for how the Lord has provided a group such as this for us international folk =)

Just now it was yet another farewell-ish event - the bunch of us from nus met for dinner with the unc people who were at nus last sem and the unc people who'll be in nus next sem - probably the last time i'll get to see some of the middle group, but it also was good to meet up with the next batch - got me a biiit excited about next sem when they'll be in S'pore. We ate at this place called "35 Chinese" though, and if you know me, judging from the name of the place you'll know how much i enjoyed the meal...

Yup, the time for farewells and goodbyes has come - quite sad i must say - time here has really gone by so fast, have only just over a week left here on the Hill before i go travelling. Well, i'll be back here early in the new year, but don't think will get to see too many, if any people at all in those few days. Though i haven't met as many people here as some of the others have, i'm definitely very thankful for those whom i've met - they've all really been a great blessing to me during my time here - again it makes me realise how important it is to not ignore foreign students back home, which i sometimes tend to do - a little bit can definitely go a long way...

Oh and did i mention the weather these past few days has been wonderful? (Well at least to me, most others are complaining about the freezing cold). Great weather to just take a nice walk in and enjoy the cool, fresh air. No snow though - whenever the temperature is well below freezing the forecast always seems to be for 0% chance of precipitation of any kind *bleah*. And i know when i get back, i'll suffer all the more...

Hope none of my flights kena this sorta thing - talk about a story to tell the grandchildren eh ;p...

Sweet Sunday

A dark and gloomy Sunday afternoon now - forecast calls for perfectly dreary 40-degree showers anytime now. I've actually a term paper to more or less start and finish by this Friday, but already from a few days ago i've felt this peace in my heart (am quite sure it's just peace and not complacency) to just sit back and relax this Sunday, as per what i've always had the conviction to do but have never realized. The speaker at the last IV large group was talking about it somewhat, still working through whatever i remember of her talk through my head, but anyways that served as the final nail in the coffin of my repose today, and hopefully for Sundays to come, as far as possible; since i was thinking about making better use of the Sabbath for a very long time now, instead of losing it in mindless nothingness and work that could be done on other days...

So instead i've decided to use today to do various other thingies like type this, post pics, download music (we've legal song downloading here *whee*) and write farewell notes (hmm sounds a tad morbid). Was actually going to go for a swim today, that has proved to just be the latest of my aborted attempts to do so - i've already pencilled it in to at go at least once before i leave this place - but not sure if anything will come out of that. Maybe i'll go when it's freezing outside, the 85-degree heated pool would be a nice contrast to that...

Yesterday's game was a good experience overall, and an enjoyable one; even if the game itself was rather scrappy and not very electrifying, and i got stuck in the last row of the upper deck (i.e. the nosebleed seats), which afforded a microscopic view of the whole game. 75-63 to us, our lowest-scoring game by far this season. Apparently in the big game on Wednesday (v. the then #1 team, Ohio State - which has been the only home game so far i've not gotten tics to), the Tar Heels put on an electrifying performance to win 98-89, although they were without the #1 freshman in the nation due to a wrist injury (see what a week of bball immersion during Thanksgiving can do to me). And as a result of playing their hearts out in that one, the game i went to was far more subdued - our coach even stood up and tried to rouse the indifferent crowd, he said was only the second time in history he had to do that. Ah well, at least i've at least one more game to go to, and possibly another one just before i leave against my brother's school, so hopefully they'll be far more rested for that one. Add that to hopefully better-located seats (or alternatively, a telescope), and even though our opponent is quite unknown (ever heard of High Point?), maybe that game will be somewhat more thrilling than this one.

It's a looooong way down from here to the action...

This morning i went for another run, my first in around a month. Needless to say, the weather's gotten a lot colder since then - so today for the first time in my life had to wear sweats to run. Felt needed to run in order to clear my head from a lot of stuff as much as to get some exercise (now my mother also said that i've lost weight btw)... Well basically the month off has done its damage, i was struggling through the second lap, but at least managed to get through it - though after that my knees were aching really badly - guess that's a combination of poor technique, cold weather and getting old heh... Well in any case when i'm back in S'pore wringing out buckets from my shirt into the longkang i know i'll miss running in such pleasant, non-sweat-inducing weather...

I just realized [cos (my recently-downloaded) James Taylor's Carolina In My Mind is playing on my laptop now], almost two years after i chose it, that the color of this font is Carolina Blue - sweet =)

And the 1943 song cannot get out of my mind! Though admittedly that's in part cos i downloaded it too =p...

J'ai vingt-trois ans...

Ok firstly, just to say thanks to all the well-wishes for my turning the big two-three - know that in the previous post i was saying that i wasn't all that enthusiastic about it and was glad to get away from it all, but well i really appreciated and treasured every one that came my way, so thanks - now i think i know why i'm not too keen on birthdays - cos when i think to a year from now, i realise i'll be an age which previously had seemed so far away - i mean, can you believe that i'll be 24 next year at this time? Eek...

And somewhere on that note, promise to reply emails and what-have-yous really soon, once i finish a significant-enough portion of the annoying book report that i've to do by Mon - currently am really skimming through the copied pages of the book in question - had to zap the second half of it (at a ridiculously high price of US 14 cents per page) cos the library only had it on two-hour (read: RBR) reserve and i only managed to get half of the book covered before i left for Charlotte.

Which is where i am now - one random point of interest/annoyance: left the Hill at around one-ish, then later after i'd reached here got a happy birthday message on facebook saying that it snowed a bit on the hill just for me - and i was like "WHAT? YOU MEAN IT SNOWED ONCE I LEFT???!!!" Ok, of course i didn't reply in that brusque a manner but the general gist was there - yes - first snow of the year and it had to come mere hours after i left the Hill... Nice...

And speaking of annoyances, have been catching a lot of college basketball here at Greg's house (nothing like a good time in the States to make you do things you'd never ever think of doing previously) and just caught my first-ever Tar Heels game - we were 3-0 up to this point, but of course the first game that i caught had to be a tame loss to Gonzaga - our first loss of the season.

So a quick recap: First snowfall of the season - missed; first Tar Heels loss of the season - caught. Bummer...

Heh, well anyways, so far i've been having a really good time over here at Greg's - a lot of his relatives arrived today - it kinda reminded me of CNY minus the annoying music and stilted chatter, plus good food and lots of tv... His neighbor's children even somehow got wind of my birthday and gave Greg and i three bags of candy each, and also posted a couple of 'happy birthday' signs outside the house - really sweet of them - also there was a little cake awaiting us at home too; and his relatives area a really nice bunch too. Anyways, am trying to finish my book report asap so that can spend more time just enjoying things over here...

Gosh i'm old - but in the spirit of Thanksgiving tomorrow - guess that's also something to give thanks for =)...

The circle game

Hmm this is becoming like an eerily-recurring pattern - me posting an entry after close to a week of not being able to do so because of work commitments that seemingly take forever.

Well, the cycle continues, and does the fact that by this stage, yours truly has once again forgotten a lot of what he wanted to say, which means, back to good old random posting again...

The weather's really wonky, i must say, the temperature can jump from below freezing to in the late 70s (think that's early 20-ish celcius wise) within the span of a day - never before have i realized the power that the online hour-by-hour weather forecast could hold over me, and in particular how i dress - berms/jeans? one shirt/two? hoodie/none? - all decisions made on a daily basis with great help from the folks at weather.com =) The thing that's definitely most annoying is stepping in and out of heated buildings when it's really freezing outside - i find it so troublesome to have to keep on putting on and taking off insulative layers of clothing - especially since doing so really messes up my already long and messy hair (when combed down, i kinda look like a Beatle now) - it makes me look as though i'm using - so nowsaday if it's not too cold i'll just eschew the hoodie/sweater altogether to cause less hassle for me...

The other day because of my choir concert in Fayetteville (about two hours due southish from the hill), i had to figure out how to wear the $100 tux that i bought about a week or two ago, including all the attachments like those tiny button thingies that you use instead of normal shirt buttons (i forget the name), and the matching cufflinks, which i was really absolutely clueless as to how to fix on (and in fact still have only a token clue as to how to fix on even now)... Well, tomorrow (or technically, today) marks the second and last performance that i have - that means probably the last time i'll be wearing the tux for a long time to come probably - so i suppose i'd better learn how to put all the stuff properly, to get my full money's worth from the tux... (and for all that effort and expense, i end up looking like a waiter at the Ritz-Carlton...)

I just ate another Sutton's burger today and have come to the conclusion that it's probably the best burger i've ever eaten so far in my life - Sida, your recommendation is much appreciated =)

I've also recently become a fan of eating dogs. No, of course not real dogs, nor hotdogs. I'm talking about these babies *yum* =p

Yeah, judging from the amout of greasy, cholesterol, trans-fat-laden, but oh-so-delicious food that i'm eating here, which can't be obtained back home, i'll definitely be losing weight once i get back to good old S'pore...

Have more or less finalized end-of-year travel plans -that's definitely very exciting - though perhaps my excitement and enthusiasm will dim somewhat once i take a look at my credit card bills...

Brain freeze on the floor

My incredibly toot self was in its full element today - i thought that missing getting on the train to Wisconsin even though it practically pulled up at my feet was bad enough, but then this morning when i got to the library i realized that i had left my stationery in my room. I was highly annoyed with myself, so i decided to venture back out into the 40-degree weather (for conversion to celcius just subtract 32 and divide by 9 and multiply by 5) back to the room (albeit only less than five minutes away) to get the stuff. I got back to the room and even saw my pencil case on the desk. But somehow, i left the room again without taking my pencil case, again only realizing it upon reaching school again. Decided to just buy a pen from the student store instead - good thing they carry Pilot G-2s since that's the only type i use...

Yuppers, well after the fall break, it's officially back to school again - of course i still contend that the break was too short, but well, i shouldn't complain... At least i'm less occupied than i was last week at this time - only have TWO midterms for this week, as opposed to three heh...

I'm really digging the cold weather - which apparently is unseasonably cold for this time of year - though my contention that snow seems to be averse to falling wherever i am has only grown stronger since coming back from Chicago. Already, the only time i've experienced snowfall (as i think many of you can attest to me lamenting over) was in 1999 in Niagara Falls, NY; though it was only flurries, and for so brief a duration that it merely looked that a slurpee machine had gone bezerk and covered the sidewalk with a thin white coating of slush. This time, there was some snowfall in Chicago in the week before i got there, and it was forecasted again for Sunday, which is when i flew off. But of course, it was forecasted for Sunday afternoon/evening, while i flew off around noon time... Then again, if there was a snowstorm i'd probably be complaining about the freezing temperature - guess i'm not one to be easily satisfied. In any case, i'm sure some snow is bound to fall somewhere where i am before i fly back...

Will get down to posting rest of pics from D.C. and those from Chicago very shortly, so just watch that space =======>

FYI, have also finally gotten down to replacing the wonky tagboard with a new one...

Retreat

Just got back from the IV student retreat at Emerald Isle - first i'll make the usual announcement that for pics, since i'm too lazy to upload them over here and also because if i did so i'd be posting them in two seperate sites which is pretty redunxant methinks, do take a look over there =======>

Well, the retreat took up almost the entire weekend, which meant that i had to cram as much work as possible before i left - which is also good in the sense of having the bitter before the sweet (xian1 ku3 hou4 tian2 - i like bitter stuff though, particularly bittergourd so maybe that isn't the best figure of speech to use...). Thankfully the more pertinent stuff (the weekly response for the tough gender welfare course i'm taking) was cleared by the time i left on Friday afternoon - and i even had time to clear my emails and waste some time in mindless chilling here and there in between... There's still two tests this wednesday to keep in mind though, especially since i have not really done much reading for either of them, and i looked at the past papers for one of them and i really didn't know how to go about answering the questions asked. I'll see if i can leave them as much for the week itself though - am trying as far as possible to keep my Sundays work-free (it helps to be lazy in this sense i guess =p)

The retreat itself was a great experience - the venue itself was really cool - it's in the southern Outer Banks - basically a chain of barrier islands along the northern NC coastline - which basically means that the island is very thin and long, and you can see the coast on both sides when you stand in the middle of the island - i reckon that as some points, it's no more than 200 metres wide. The water on one side is a sound - an inlet of sea water seperated from the open ocean by the island itself, and needless to say the water on the other side is the open ocean itself...

I don't want to always draw comparisons between how things go about in IV and the same back in VCF, but anyways, basically it's different... But i still had a good time at the retreat - time to spend some good (and some not so good) time alone with God, to meet new people, to have some fun, to have old and new things alike (re-)impressed upon my heart; that sort of thing...

The weather was just at it's minimally-acceptable temperature to be doing stuff at the beach - so i got acquainted (or at least tried to) with American Football - till the end i still was pretty clueless as to stuff like which direction am i supposed to run if i do catch the ball (and i managed to do so once - hooray for that) and that sort of thing... Frisbee wasn't very successful either - cos the strong winds blowing in from the sea muddled the course of practically every frisbee throw. Riding the surf didn't work out too well either - the waves were much stronger than the other time, so often the waves just picked me up and deposited me in shallower waters - but not before giving me nasty scratches on my chest, elbow and knee from rough contact with the sand (looked like i kena mauled by a domestic cat) - there was one wave which even caused me to do an underwater half-cartwheel before landing hard on the sand left shoulder first - not exactly a painless experience - and of course i probably exceeded my day's required sodium intake in all of an hour in the water... But even with all that, it was fun you know...

Yeah and on top of that there was other stuff like singing bizarre action songs (Baby Shark!), stories told that one will never forget, an ice-cream eating contest out of the gutter (that was an experience for sure)... Yup but too bad i have no pictures of those, and it's no fun to just verbally describe all this stuff without y'all actually seeing it, so i'll just leave it at that...

We had good lodgings while we were there - they rented some nice beach houses - far better than what we have in sentosa that's for sure - only problem's that they had to spread everyone out - less than 10 per house, and there were 130 people in total, so it was harder to get to know more people (oops i'm comparing again...)... I enjoyed how i was able to wake up early in the morning and sit on the porch and read the Bible - such a refreshing environment...

This morning i actually wanted to go for a run - reminds me of running at ECP, only far cooler and far more scenic - but i decided to pass because of a lack of time. I was semi-regretting not running afterward cos i helped myself to some Hostess frosted chocolate donettes - then i took a look after that at the nutritional information at the back of the box, only to realise that just three of the little donettes (only two inches in diameter) - incidentally the number of donettes i ate was three - would already account for 45% of one's daily recommended saturated fat intake or something or other - troubling... (though of course those thingies were so addictive that i ate one more anyways...)

Alright, back to school tomorrow then, hope can find time to finalize fall break plans...

ta!

Coolness

I've always taken a liking to cold weather - which is actually one of the (secondary) reasons why i wanted to go on exchange in the first place - to spend a prolonged period of time away from the oppressive heat and humidity of S'pore.

So therefore when i first got out of RDU airport, i was kind of bummed to realise that the weather was almost identical to what you'd get back home, with the blazing sun in fact being even more intense than it ever gets in S'pore, with the saving grace probably being the slightly lower humidity over here, though still in general, it was hot. And it has pretty much stayed this way ever since - until today.

I suppose it's due to Tropical Storm Ernesto supposedly passing over the eastern half of North Carolina, but anyway today's weather was just great - unlike the past few days it was not raining heavily, and the weather stayed in the high fifties to sixties (to convert to Celcius, just subtract 32, divide by nine and multiply by five - or you can take my word for it that it never got above 20 degrees C). In fact i was one of the few jokers walking around wearing a t-shirt and berms without a jacket of any kind and without an umbrella either - not the wisest thing to do if i want to stay sickness-free, i'd admit, but it felt shiok i tell you...

So tomorrow i'm going for my first football game - UNC vs. Rutgers - and i'll have to say that i've never been this on about attending a sporting event before, particularly one where i know next to nothing about the sport in question itself. But the whole school culture here is one that is really in to sport, and i guess i kind of got caught along in the wave. Can you imagine it, i even wouldn't mind watching the soccer team play if the opportunity arose (which i think it should) - something that i wouldn't even give a fleeting thought to doing if i were back home. Anyway, think that the atmosphere tomorrow will be great...

After that it's off to Charlotte, NC for the rest of the Labor Day long weekend - and it should be good - guess you'll next hear from me from there then - ta!

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 =)

You never let go

Hmm first things first i'll be posting all of my photos on the site labelled "US PICS" in the links column over there =======> so do take a look if you want to see more pictorial representations of some of the nonsense i mention here...

I came to the realization today that using facebook was the best way to put my pics online in a way that all can see, since i had already been using it as prompted by some of the UNC peeps. I know that you know that my usual rule is none of this online friendship stuff (which is why i neither have msn nor have friendster), but figured no harm in at least getting an account, though i probably won't be doing anything much with it. And further more it's a really convenient way for me to upload my photos for people to see since you don't need to be a facebook user to view the albums, and there's unlimited space for the pics too...

I was able to come to this realization because today basically i did nothing more than slack at home - nope i didn't even leave te house, which is just as well since here it can get pretty hot (over 100 degrees F), though thankfully without the energy-sapping humidity back in S'pore. This meant more than ample time to just laze around at home (since the lack of a car and driver made going out not a possibility). I even had time in the evening to catch some tennis on espn - the last point of Roger Federer's semifinal victory over Fernando Gonzalez in the Toronto Masters and the whole semifinal match between Jelena Jankovic and Serena Williams in the LA JPMorgan Chase Open which the former won (both outcomes being to my delight). As much as i follow tennis, my lack of cable back home means that this match was probably only the third or fourth full tennis match that i've ever watched in my life - and it was quite fun to do so...

Hmm yup Fresno so far has been pretty boring (btw there's a suburb of Portland called Boring, and it's right next to another suburb called Happy Valley - go figure...) but i guess i expected that lah- i was here just last year anyway so i've seen pretty much most of the little that there is to see... Anyway, it's good to slack a little now and then...

Here we're staying with some former church friends, who happen to also be Filipinos - and needless to say from being plunged into the deep end with Cantonese now Tagalog is the language that i have to tackle - i can roughly understand what is going on in a conversation, and be able to respond to questions asked me in Tagalog, but every single reply i give is in English, and more often than not i'm still left fairly clueless... I tell you, there's not a day that does not go by here when i do not wish that my parents had just heck care about Mandarin and gone ahead and taught me Tagalog last time - either way i'd still do badly for my so-called 'mother tongue' anyway...

Well, i'll finally be flying to school on Tuesday, after almost two weeks of pure slacking - am both excited yet apprehensive at the same time over what to expect. I'm thankful for these two weeks as a good means of transition so to speak between the busyness of the supposed holiday period in S'pore and the different pace of studying life at UNC. The words of this song (which i've probably at some point in time heard in S'pore but have since heard twice, and remembered over here) speak to me and are very apt at this point in time. To read them however you'll have to go here since the site itself says that the lyrics are not to be reproduced without permission, and you know what a guai kia i am =p Well, enjoy and reflect...