The beginning of the UK chapter of my life

So I arrived in Birmingham, UK, on Saturday, only to be met by no one at the airport. Also, I was questioned a lot by customs, about my intentions for studying in the UK, why I want to study religion, why I can't study that in the US, etc, but thank God it wasn't that bad. Several people before me were interrogated pretty harshly, so I was kind of nervous, but it turned out fine. I guess the UK is really getting strict about student/work visitors nowadays.

Upon calling the guy who was supposed to pick me up, I realized he thought my flight was the day before. But thank God he was on his way to the airport anyway to pick up someone else. He gave me a mini driving tour of the city of Birmingham, which seems to be a little torn down and full of dilapidated buildings, and told me there are a lot of Muslims (mostly from Pakistan) and Asians in Birmingham. We then drove to a city in the outskirts, where the training center is based.

I admit I didn't know what to expect, so I was a teeny bit taken aback to be led into this old building that looked like it might fall over anytime. But the inside wasn't so bad. We have a lounge, a conference room, dorm rooms (I'm living with 12 other girls and sharing a communal bathroom - pretty much same as college), laundry facilities, a wonderful cook, and even a library. I was a little bit traumatized by the showers at first. I thought they were open showers, but it turned out we had shower curtains. And the water pressure was so low the water was literally dripping onto my hair, drop by drop. But then I realized that was the only shower head that was so bad; the other three were not much better, but an improvement at least.

As I looked around at my surroundings, I realized - I am on a mission trip. What did I expect?? So it's taking some getting used to, but I am getting used to things here. I was a bit jet lagged at first, but it's better now. And I was a bit overwhelmed by all the different nationalities here - there are people from France, Germany, Switzerland, Brazil, Spain, Korea, Austria, USA, Australia, Mauritius, Nigeria... everywhere. It's pretty amazing. For most of them, English isn't their first language, so it was and is still a little difficult trying to understand them in their halting English. I think it will be interesting trying to communicate for the next few months with some of them, but I'm sure their English will improve by leaps and bounds by then.

So the first two nights I kept questioning myself - Why on earth am I here?? Why did I fly across the globe to come and suffer in this place with a ton of other people instead of staying in the wondrous comfort of home?? Why do I keep trying to make myself move out of my comfort zone?? Seriously, WHAT am I doing here? 

The thought of going home crossed my mind several times, but I knew I couldn't. I wouldn't. I guess I was a little homesick and exhausted from the traveling (by the way, Emirates is, without a doubt, the BEST AIRLINE EVER. Their TV screens are TWICE the size of SIA, they have tons of leg space, AND they even have twinkling stars in the ceiling when the lights turn off! Plus the air stewardesses have awesome headgear! The food is good too). I was a little overwhelmed by the people here, too, and I wondered again why I left all my friends back home to come here and be forced to make new friends again. All in all, I just didn't know why God wanted me here, but I do know He wants me here, because I am here, and He must have some sort of purpose for me for the next 4 months.

So yesterday was a good day. We went through orientation, got to explore the tiny town and its tiny mall, learned more about the ministries here, and we bonded as a team, so it was good. And it's funny how movies can bring people together - even though we're from all over the world, we were thoroughly entertained by the movie 'She's the Man.' haha.

So yeah. God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good. I'm learning a lot, and there's a lot to process, but this is a pretty amazing experience, and I'm grateful to be here.

How to travel light

Don't ask me, because I have no idea. I can't remember the last time I traveled light; maybe because I've never successfully done it. Every time I travel, I think I have lesser stuff than I actually do, but after piling half my stuff into the suitcase, I realize it's already bordering on overweight.

Packing is easy, but packing within the weight limit is tough. Don't airlines realize we need much more than 50 pounds of stuff to bring with us when we travel? How are we supposed to squish all our belongings into a tiny suitcase?

Usually I end up shuffling things around and throwing stuff out reluctantly until I finally get my suitcase to weigh slightly over the limit, which is acceptable. I don't think I've ever had my suitcase weigh lesser than the limit. If it ever did, I would rejoice at the occurrence of a miracle. Or, more likely, I would force more stuff into the already-bulging suitcase to make it worth every pound.

But anyway, surprisingly, my suitcase weighed only 20.1kg! Thank the heavens. After loading all my clothes, shoes, and toiletries in, I think this is the lightest I've ever traveled. My packing skills have improved!

The trip home was good, too. After getting over the initial surprise and disappointment that my flight was a day earlier than planned, I said my goodbyes to the family. It's funny how many times I've said goodbye in the last four years. Okay, not exactly funny, more of strange I guess. You would think that I'd be a seasoned pro at leaving and saying goodbyes by now... no, it's still hard. But it has given me a much greater appreciation for the time I have with loved ones. I've learned to treasure them more and not take them for granted as much.

So I sat next to this older dude on the plane, who initially came across as strange, because he talked to himself every now and then. But afterward I found out his wife had missed the flight, explaining the empty seat between him and me, and he offered me her meal, which I politely declined, since it was about 2am and not time for eating. But he kept offering me stuff, and so finally I took the orange juice and chocolate bar from him. And that sparked off our conversation about migrating from Singapore to other countries.

He told me he had dual citizenship - Singapore and Australia - and I jumped in excitement and asked him how he did it, because I was struggling to hold onto my dual citizenships. But then he replied that he applied for Aussie citizenship many years ago, and somehow Singapore didn't go after him because he had family connections in the government. Something like that. So I guess we have different situations. Oh well.

And then he proudly showed me a picture of his wife, son, and twin girls. His wife is caucasian, so their children are a pretty good-looking mix of asian and caucasian. Lucky.

Also, mental note - Jetstar is way better than Tiger Air. Not as superb as Singapore Airlines, of course, but there's really no competition there.

Graduation trip to Europe!!!

Europe is an interesting place. The people there speak English, haltingly, but they speak a ton of other languages too. It's a little confusing at times. Although... travel within Europe is wonderfully convenient. It's like traveling within the US, there's no need for customs check or passports or any of that sort.

First stop - Blois, France

My parents and I flew separately (they were on SIA and I was on United 'cause I used my mileage points and basically paid only 5bucks to fly from NYC to Frankfurt, Germany) and they got there before me, so by the time I got my luggage and stuff, they were waiting for me. We found this place at the airport to store our suitcases for 5 euro per suitcase per day, so we stored two huge ones and that took a tremendous load off our shoulders. Now we were left with one huge suitcase and three tiny ones. Not ideal, but not bad. Then we flew Air France to Paris, France, and drove like 3 hours to get to a quaint little town called Blois... in the countryside... in the middle of nowhere. It was total deja vu. I could've been in Upland, Indiana because the place was surrounded by fields and fields. Maybe not CORNfields, but fields nonetheless. But it didn't bother me, because I was in FRANCE!!!!! First time there!!!

We were tired after all that driving, so we had dinner at the hotel and went to bed. The room was SO uniquely decorated. It was not like a normal hotel room. It was modern, the walls were painted red, black, and white, the furniture was so cool, and there was a little winding staircase that led to a bedroom upstairs. I regret not taking a picture of it, it was so cool. Oh well.

So the next few days we went to visit chateaus and wineries, and it was pretty cool. The chateaus were amazing. We went to three in all, and they were HUGE and surrounded with TONS of land. probably as big as singapore, no kidding. Okay, maybe exaggerating, but they really were enormous. Some of them were surrounded by lakes and forests, and it took us a while to get around the entire estate. The architecture was gorgeous too, and the rooms inside the chateaus were all so quaint and charming.

Although I wouldn't want to live in a chateau (some descendants of royalty still lived there), they're too huge and I wouldn't know what to do with all that space. Plus I would never be able to find anyone ever. It would be like playing hide and seek all the time. And some of the rooms were a little scary, especially those covered with armors and moose heads and stuffed real foxes. But they were cool to visit.

The wineries were fun too, we got to see how wine was processed and bottled, and then we got to try some champagne and wine. It tasted alright. I prefer sweet wines. And so I took lots of pictures of the wine while my mom drank all my champagne/wine and she got a little tipsy. haha. It was infinitely amusing, seeing her slap happy and laughing at everything and claiming she was a little giddy - from like 4 tiny cups of wine. haha.

On a side note, EVERYTHING in France/Germany/Europe in general is CRAZY EXPENSIVE.Wine/beer/alcohol in general is actually CHEAPER than water. Isn't that ridiculous? That's why my parents drank wine in France and beer in Germany at every meal because it was cheaper than my Evian water. I couldn't deal with drinking alcohol while eating so I had to get water. And there's no such thing as tap water there. It must be Evian water in restaurants, and it's like freaking 5 euro, which is like about 9SGD. Just got water!!! Ridiculous. Also, I don't know if we just picked the wrong restaurants or the wrong dishes, but I didn't really like French food that much. They eat a lot of baguettes with cheese/pate (dip made out of pork/goose/other things), and that was pretty good, except the bread was always ROCK HARD. I think French people must have very strong teeth because mine were crying out in pain whenever I bit into a piece of bread. But I must admit, their baguettes (when fresh and piping hot from the oven) are DELICIOUS. Don't even need to eat it with butter or anything. Just by itself, it was SO GOOD. We polished off baguette after baguette.

But other than that... they had a lot of raw stuff. Like when my mom ordered tartare and realized (after it was served) that tartare means raw meat, like raw beef and fish. She looked at it, screamed, and sent it back immediately. It was funny. I laughed. But then I ordered a fish salad (they only had fish salads. who doesn't have a normal chicken caesar salad???), and it came with anchovies and some raw fish. Ew. I just ate the veggies and tried not to gag when they came in contact with the raw fish.
And I had stomachaches a couple times, after eating the food. Don't know why. Must be all that contact with the raw stuff!!! And their desserts were super duper sweet. And their portions were super duper huge. It's amazing not everyone is obese like in America. I thought French food was served in tiny portions but I guess they're becoming Americanized too.

Second stop - Paris, France

After 3 days in Blois, we drove 3 hours back to the city of Paris!!!! It was beautiful, all the architecture of the buildings were incredible. I wish Singapore had gorgeous buildings like that, but when I mentioned that to my dad, he said no one knows how to construct buildings like that anymore. I guess they all died a long time ago and everyone wants modern buildings now. Sad. Old buildings are really quite precious. So we stayed 2 streets away from Champs d'Elysees, the famous avenue in Paris that is filled with brand name shops and restaurants.

Our hotel was pretty swanky - it was the Renaissance hotel, which is affiliated with Marriott, which is where we stayed the entire trip because we used our Marriott points. And we were right by the Arc du Triomphe, a famous landmark in Paris, which is surrounded by a roundabout. Now, normal roundabouts (a circle with many exits for cars to choose from) are small and can probably fit about 2 cars and they're quite orderly. But this one, ohhhhh boy. It was like MASS CHAOS. It was wide enough to squeeze about 8 cars in the entire lane, and there were no lines separating any lanes, so everyone was just squeezing their way in, weaving in and out of the non-existent lanes, and then randomly shooting out of their lane and into the exit without warning. It's amazing there aren't traffic accidents there every second of every day. French drivers must have very fast reaction times. Mom nearly had a heart attack screaming at my dad to 'watch out for all the cars' and 'drive slower' and 'EXIT!! THERE!! NO, NOT THIS ONE, THE NEXT ONE!! OKAY NOW!!'

So we visited a couple famous places in Paris. The Eiffel Tower was one of them, of course. How could we not? It was pretty disappointing in the day, looked like a piece of scrap metal. But when it was all lit up at night, it was the prettiest sight, especially when the lights started blinking and going crazy every half an hour. We took the elevator to the top and the view of the city was incredible. It was freezing cold though, so we didn't stay long. We took a tour bus that allowed us to hop on and hop off anytime, so we toured the city that way.

Went to the Louvre, it was an incredibly huge museum, to the Notre Dame Cathedral, which, in my opinion, was an example of commercialized religion. They were having mass when we were visiting, and it was like they were on display for our entertainment. While the priest was speaking, visitors were walking up and down the outside aisles, taking pictures with flash, pointing at people, whispering loudly... It couldn't be any more distracting. And then there were machines for you to put 5euro in and get some kind of souvenir postcard or coin. Who does that in churches??? I don't understand how people can go there regularly as members.

 

So anyway, the weather there was a little chilly, but still alright. For me, at least. My parents (especially mom) were shivering like none other. I guess Indiana's crazy cold weather has trained me well indeed. They both ended up wearing my jackets on top of theirs while I wore a three-quarter sleeved jacket. haha.

We went to Galleries Lafayette, a huge brand name mall, but didn't buy anything because everything was just so expensive. Europe is totally NOT a place to shop. It's good just for sightseeing. Even when we went to the outlet mall, everything was cheaper, but still not cheap. It's ridiculous. People there must make a lot of money!

Third Stop - Berlin, Germany

So from Paris, we flew to Berlin, which was incredibly rich in history and wonderfully fascinating. After a while, the design of the buildings gets a little repetitive. I think most of the buildings look alike in Europe, at least the places I've been to (Greece, Italy, France, Germany). They're old and sometimes gothic and they have intricate carvings. But in Berlin it was a little different. Because it was badly damaged by the war, a ton of buildings were destroyed, and so now they have old buildings next to new, modern ones, and it looks a little weird.

Our cab driver who took us from the airport to the hotel was a middle-aged woman, and she totally gave us a summary of Berlin's history and pointed out all the major landmarks. PLUS she was like 15 years old when the war happened, and so she remembered everything. She even played by the Berlin wall as a teen. Isn't that so cool??? So anyway the wall's obviously torn down now, but there's little markings all over Berlin to show where the wall used to be, and which side was East Berlin and which side was West. It was incredibly cool to be there and see all that in person because I learned about the war and the Berlin wall in my JC history class. We saw a part of the wall that was left standing, and the holes that were in it from people from the East trying to escape, we read about the history of the wall and how tons of people escaped successfully but many others died in their attempt.

We also took the tour bus around, and so we saw the huge glass windowed Parliament House, the Jewish museum, the Jewish memorial, more monuments, and shopping places.

Our other cab driver who took us from the restaurant to the hotel was so cute. He was an elderly man who looked about 80 but turned out to be only 60! And he was SUCH a world traveler. He'd been to every single continent in the world (except for Antarctica), and he'd even been to Singapore a couple of times in his youth! It never ceases to amaze me when I meet people who've been to Singapore. It's just that Singapore is SUCH a tiny little DOT on the map, I marvel at how people even KNOW where it is!!

Oh and German food... is incredible. I love it. They have tons of potatoes, enough said. I love potatoes. Baked potatoes, mashed potatoes, sliced potatoes, boiled potatoes, fried potatoes, ALL KINDS! haha. My dad went nuts and ordered pork knuckle at every restaurant we went to. It was pretty good...tasted like fried chicken. haha. And needless to say, we tried all kinds of german beer, and I don't normally like beer, but there was this one, called Dunkles Radler, at the famous beer restaurant in Munich called Hofbrauhaus... it was SO GOOD. I've never drank so much beer in my life. It came in this HUGE mug that I couldn't lift with one hand, and all 3 of us shared it. I couldn't stop drinking it, it tasted so good. Didn't even taste like regular beer. That's probably why I liked it. haha.

The people in Germany were so friendly and warm, much nicer than the French. Sometimes French people pretend they don't know English, and even if they do, they just keep speaking French to you as if you understand. I guess they're kind of snobby. But German people are so loud and boisterous and happy. I like them. I like the way German and French sound... the languages are just so cool. I wish I knew how to speak German/French. I'm glad their written language is in the English alphabet though. It helped us to kind of decipher certain words that sounded similar to English words. German words are CRAZY long though. It's like we'd be trying to figure out how to get to some particular street in Germany, and the street would be called something like Frastrandesbergstein. And so by the time we got to the last part of the word, we'd forget the first part. So to save time (and to keep ourselves from going crazy), we just memorized the first 5 letters to find the street. haha.

Fourth stop - Munich, Germany

Munich was alright, the day we spent there it rained all day. And not just sprinkles of rain, it was POURING like never before. So it kind of ruined the mood, but oh well. We went to Marianplatz and saw some more cool architecture, got a view of the city from above, and decided to leave before we got drenched. We met this really cute old chinese couple from Beijing at the Hofbrauhaus place... they were the sweetest little thing! The little old man was happily and slowly enjoying his pork knuckle, taking tiny bites and then smiling and raising his little camera on his little tripod and taking videos of the band performing. The little old woman was happily enjoying the pork knuckle too, and in between bites she would smile at the little old man and get up to help him take a closer video of the band. And then they would continue eating and smiling and clapping. It was the cutest thing ever. My dad and I laughed so hard at their cuteness and I tried to take a photo of them, but it was wobbly because I burst out laughing.

We also visited the Dachau concentration camp half an hour away from the city in Munich, and it was pretty intense. There were tons of people there even though it was raining, and the camp was HUGE! It housed over 6000 people I think, and there was a huge empty spacious courtyard for the prisoners to assemble for rollcall, where they would be counted and sometimes made to stand for hours. We also saw their living quarters, which had tiny beds and were really cold. I bet winters must be horribly harsh. There was a huge museum in place of where the prisoners used to live, and it had all kinds of pictures, facts, and videos about the camp and the war, from how it started to how Hitler took control to the awful things prisoners had to endure. The thing that stood out the most to me was how the prisoners were treated like they weren't human. Some of them were human experiments for SICK 'doctors' who used their bodies in the name of science. They took all kinds of people, especially healthy ones, and performed experimental surgeries on them. HOW SICK IS THAT?!?!? I almost fainted reading about it.

And then some of them went through other experiments like the Malaria experiment, where the guards attached boxes filled with malaria-infested mosquitoes to the prisoners' legs, and then tested them for malaria cures and all that. I couldn't read it all. It was too grotesque and inhumane. And there were all kinds of prisoners in the camp - it was one of the largest and longest-lasting camp during the war. It really was sad. I don't know how humans can commit such crimes against other humans. We didn't get a chance to walk through the entire site because it started raining super heavily and we only had one umbrella. Oh well. It was an interesting experience anyway.

We went to the BMW exhibition (I know, random, but it was indoors and away from the rain), and saw all kinds of cool cars and motorcycles. And then we went back to the Hofbrauhaus for dinner. It was good. I love german food so much.

So then the next day, when we were about to leave Munich, the sun finally decided to shine. So we walked around for a bit, then we embarked on a 5-hour-turned-8-hour drive to Frankfurt. My parents, in their attempt to be the smarty-pants, decided NOT to follow the GPS and try to get to Frankfurt on their own with a TINY MAP. Who does that?!?!?!? What is the GPS for, if not to help you get to your destination?!?!?! So of course we ended up straying from the path and getting lost and winding up in the woods an hour away from the highway!! They claimed the highway had a traffic jam. I say it was just an excuse. But oh well. I slept most of the time anyway. And we got to see little quaint German towns, so it wasn't so bad. We finally got to Frankfurt at 9pm and we were pretty much exhausted so we had dinner at the hotel, saw the view of the city from the swimming pool, and went to bed.

And the next day we flew home. Thank God for wonderful SIA, which allowed us to check in 5 bags altogether, and 3 of them overweight, with no extra charge. I love SIA. Not like picky UNITED/DELTA/EVERY OTHER AIRLINE IN THE WORLD! And I got to watch 'Shutter Island,' 'Valentine's Day,' 'How to Train Your Dragon,' 'Alice in Wonderland,' and 'Tooth Fairy.' Didn't sleep much, maybe half an hour, but it was so worth it.

And now I'm totally experiencing jet lag because it's 6.30am and I'm wide awake. Great.

Day 1 in Hawaii

I LOVE HONOLULU, HAWAII!!! IT'S SO AWESOME!!

Everyone here is incredibly laid back, there are tons of tourists, and people basically just chill out at the beach everyday.
WHAT. A. LIFE. I want to move here and work at a surf shop and relax at the beach everyday too!

It actually reminds me a little of Singapore, because it's a tiny island, sunny all year round, filled with trees along the pavements, and oh, asians GALORE. Seriously, this is like a second Japan. I think more than half the population here are Japanese; all the signs and travel brochures even have Japanese on them. So the convenience stores sell a ton of asian food, which is so exciting because it's such a welcome change from Indiana's lame old Walmart.

Anyway, after flight delays (no surprise there, DELTA), I finally arrived in Hawaii after going from Indianapolis to Memphis to LA. And my suitcase actually didn't get lost! I was shocked. Maybe Delta is improving after all. So I got in at 9pm, which is 3am Indiana time, and I was exhausted from the 13 hours of traveling. But Cartoon and I had a little reunion catch-up time, so that was cool. Oh, and we're staying at her friend's apartment, which is so nice and clean and 10 mins away from all the shops and the beach! SO excited. We didn't go yesterday, because we went grocery shopping and exploring around the area, but we'll go soon. SUN, HERE I COME!
I am so white. I need to be tan again.

So we walked around the area and saw a ton of brand name stores. I didn't expect Hawaii to be so.... brand-conscious. But I guess it's mostly for the tourists. It was so wonderful to be able to be around people again, and the sun, and shops. And the beach was packed full of caucasians roasting in the sun. It was like a mass of red because they were all burnt from the sun's rays. I wonder if they know they're getting this much closer to contracting skin cancer.

Anyway, we made dinner in the apartment while her friend was out - we fried gyozas, ramen noodles, chicken, and lettuce together. It was so delicious. Better than the katsu ramen I had from a local restaurant. And then, PARTY AT NIGHT! I have been so deprived.

I love spring break :)

oh, snowy cornfields

so i had a terrible time traveling back to indiana, but what's new. i think it was a sign from God telling me not to go back, since there were problems at EVERY place. haha.
first, i couldn't check in at the United Airlines in singapore. they said i needed to show the credit card used to purchase the ticket, i said its with my parents who are in freaking AUSTRALIA, they said TOO BAD, CANNOT CHECK IT. i almost said, ok i'll just go home and unpack my stuff then. haha. but i didn't... and we went back and forth, him saying i need the stupid credit card, me saying i DON'T HAVE the stupid credit card... and after a while he was like, ok, we'll refund you the ticket and you use your own credit card to purchase it.
SO STUPID HUH. it's the same thing! and it took up half an hour.

anyway, then two hours later at Hong Kong, i realized the guy didn't give me my boarding pass to Chicago, and i only had like half an hour till my plane took off. so i got in the super long line for United Airlines and thought i was never going to leave HK since the line was crawling at the speed of a snail. but then the person called for passengers bound for Chicago, so i got my ticket and got in. then i attempted to buy a bottle of water to bring onto the plane (which normally works), but they took it away from me because they checked every single passenger's bag manually before boarding!! so i was thirsty the entire plane ride and i wasted 3bucks. and then the plane didn't have any TVs, so i slept a whole lot. which was good i guess.

then we landed at chicago, and i looked out the window and everything was white, so i thought, oh i guess we're still in the air! but then the pilot said, we've now landed in chicago..... and i was like, WHAT? oh right. all that whiteness is SNOW. sigh. welcome back to winter.
and then i realized the plane landed an hour late, and so i missed my flight. but it was ok because my flight was canceled anyway. darn those snowstorms. so i waited in chicago from 12 till 9pm. the whole time my thought process was... i'm never going to get back to Taylor. but time went by pretty quickly... faith called, then mom+dad called, then andrew called... and before i knew it, it was 8pm! yay. and i was exhausted.

finally got back to indiana and checked in to a hotel and fell asleep at 2am. couldn't go back to campus 'cause there was snow everywhere on the roads. and good thing i didn't, cause apparently there were NINE ROAD ACCIDENTS that occurred that night, as i found out the next morning. so i finally got back to Taylor at 12.45pm, went to the bookstore to get my books, and went straight to Astronomy class from 1-3.30pm. SIGH.

a little overwhelmed with a TON of stuff to catch up on, but it'll be ok. it doesn't seem that bad. i'm almost caught up with homework, except for the lab stuff, which i can only do tomorrow. so i'm good! although everyone was having fun this weekend except me, stuck in the room watching darn videos about the universe and reading about the galaxies. but i got all my stuff back and unpacked, so now i'm good! :)

kinda weird to be back in the dorms, but everyone's cool. my new roomie's really nice, the freshmen seem nice and friendly, got to see old friends... DC food is still the same. bleh. I CAN DO THIS. i can live in the middle of nowhere for 5 more months and then leave forever.



A few days later....

I'm officially done catching up with astronomy!!! YES. looked over my grades for the homework assignment.. not too great, but oh well whatever! at this point i just want to graduate! anyway, learning about the universe and everything in the galaxies has been really informational. makes you realize just how unique Earth is, because everything on Earth, every single property and characteristic our planet exudes, works together to sustain and nurture life, and without even one of them, we would not be here. it's just amazing how God creates things and how small we are, compared to the vastness of the galaxy. but just learning about the planets, stars, galaxies... it's simply impossible NOT to believe that there's a god out there. there's just no way all this could come about by coincidence.

Ooohh and we're using this Stellarium program which allows you to see the stars in the sky at any time, from any place, at any date. it's SUPER COOL. like, i can see how the sky looks like in singapore right now. it's pretty awesome. but we also have to do real observations outside.... in the freezing cold, which we did last night. omg i couldn't feel my hands so i didn't record anything because i was too busy trying to keep warm. haha. anyway, we had our first test today, it went pretty well thank God.

And i got to catch up with more friends and have more reunions, which is always fun :) still feels a little weird, especially when i walk into the Dining Commons, and i don't recognize 90% of the people there 'cause they're mostly freshmen. and then there are a TON of asians on campus now, mostly koreans, and they all look at me like, whoa, you're asian and i've never seen you before? who are you? haha. its weird but true!
And its a little annoying, surrounded by insane, energetic screaming freshmen on the wing all the time, but oh well. only in college, right? i'll never get to do this again, might as well enjoy it now. and the freshmen are really cool, so i like them :)

Oh how I love traveling experiences...

being sarcastic there.

so... guess what happened? Northwest flight got delayed, due to some technical problems, not surprised at all. they put me on another route.. from Indianapolis to Minneapolis to Atlanta. finally got here at 8pm after traveling for one whole day when Georgia's only like 2 hours away from Indiana. waited at the baggage claim... and of course! no luggage in sight. not surprised at all. both of us didn't get out luggage until today.
once again i say, I'LL NEVER FLY DELTA AGAIN!
but of course i will. cuz the other american airlines are even worse.

on the plus side, they put me on FIRST CLASS for both flights! i'm really blessed. although i must say, i really don't make full use of being in first class. i just sleep through it. so i only enjoy the nice, huge space i have. not really any of the drinks/snacks or anything. traveling is just too tiring.

Anw, on friday we went to mimi's house in Indy..was so nice to meet her family! they have 5 girls, all adopted from different places in the world..so their family is a mix of caucasian, korean, indian, and hispanic. isn't that so cool? i wanna have that too. adopt kids from all over the world (aka Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt) so i don't have to have my own. haha. it'll make for a really interesting diverse family :)

and today! the crazy guy at the front desk (we're staying at Courtyard Marriott till mon.. it's a pretty crappy place, but i'm just glad to have a place to stay so i'm not complaining) told us we had to leave the hotel at 7.15am to get to Six Flags by 10.30am, when they opened.
SO. we got up at freakin 6am! i couldn't sleep too..so i got no sleep. and we took the subway..was pretty easy to navigate. we were like the only asians there. heh. black people are everywhere! was really interesting to observe. they're really free in their expression. one guy was singing in the subway, another was dancing, another was preaching to anyone who'd listen! so interesting right?? and some of them tried to randomly talk to us. fascinating :)

so we got to the Six Flags subway stop at 8am!!! 2 and a half hours before it even opens!!! and we found this awesome, weird toilet. it looked like a metallic box. and u press a button and the door slides open. looks cool outside, but inside is like any other toilet u'd find at a gas station in malaysia. and u have to press a button and they give u like 2 squares of toilet paper. so of course i pressed the button 50 times. anw everything in there was automated. was pretty futuristic.
and then we rode on the subway to random stops until 10am, then SIX FLAGS!!!!

it was awesome. i LOVED every single ride. there were rollercoasters galore. it was like my dream come true!!!! soooo many crazy rollercoasters of all kinds!!! there was the Georgia Scorcher where we had to STAND UP the entire time!! coolness. and Superman, where we were lying face down, with only one little seatbelt thingy holding us from falling to the ground. was absolutely awesome. sung ah and i got on so many rollercoasters one after each other that after a while we got dizzy. heh. we finished all the thrill rides! there was hardly any lines too! we got done by like 5pm. and now my throat hurts from screaming so much. but yeah. i love six flags. but then again, it's no Disneyworld. Disney is still the best :)

YAY for going to Georgia Tech tomorrow!!

back again!

it's been...3 months? heh. summer was..AWESOME! hanging out, watching every single movie there is (except the horror flicks), going gym with joce (new body!), family gatherings, SINGFEST!!, celebrating my bdae numerous times.. can't believe time flew by so fast!!

and now i'm back. in good old upland. arrived safely and happily. the flight back was..AWESOME!! they gave me premier tickets? dont know what those are but i like em! cuz United Air usually doesn't have TVs for economy class, so i came prepared with my ds, mags, books, laptop, etc. but to my utmost surprise, there were tvs on the back of the seat!!! so excited i called my parents to share my joy. haha. and the plane was like half empty! so there was no one around me!! so i could put up my legs, put down my chair, not be disturbed by anyone!!! it was total happiness. and from japan to chicago, they put me on BUSINESS CLASS!! without even telling me!! it was SUCH a nice shock. loved it!! huge reclining chair, soooo much space to fit 2 of me, nice meals..although the food was kinda wasted on me..prawns..seafood stuff..ugh. so i got more sleep than usual. it was one of the best travelling experiences. :) THANK GOD! cuz normally when i travel i either get cramps, flu, or painful ear popping experiences. but God is good!! and all my luggage arrived safely too!!!

kinda weird being back and seeing everyone again. but it's nice :) can't wait to see the freshmen though!! yayyy!!! going back to eating wraps and burgers and salads is kinda weird too. there's like tons of chips, sweets, snacks, cookies, etc..laying around at the daudts' (where i'm staying with 15 other girls)..but i'm determined to be healthy and avoid those like mad!! ooh must remember to take my medicine. :)

back at my second home

it's so funny how this little university in this tiny town of upland has become my second home. haha. anw, thank God for safe travelling! although it was quite an experience. seriously, every time i travel, i fall sick. not fun! but managed to sleep quite a lot during the plane ride, so that was unexpectedly good. arrived at the airport in frankfurt, germany to stopover before continuing on to JFK new york..and OMG. it was the most POK airport i've ever seen!! nothing, no shops around for at least a few miles. and the toilet was a total POK metal container. it was shiny and all. sooo bored there for a few hours. at least i had my com and movis to accompany me. :)

my flight from new york to cincinnati was delayed like almost 2hours!!!! which left me 15 whole mins to SPRINT LIKE MAD from one terminal to the other (and take bus also cuz the stupid terminal so far away) to catch my other flight to indianapolis. obviously the plane left without me. and it was a total wake up call cuz i was WIPED OUT after running for 5 mins. so unfit. didn't really panic cuz many other pple missed the plane like me. (note to self: NEVER take stupid delta airlines again! they made me miss my connecting flight TWICE already in my lifetime. no compensation either!)

so they put me on the next flight, which was hours later. so i tried desperately to call pple up to get my roomie's cell phone number cuz we were getting a ride back to taylor from the same person. finally got a hold of her, and everything worked out. we ended up going back to taylor with random pple from taylor we met at the airport who had space in their car for us. haha. thank GOD! :)

slept from midnight last night till 1pm today. still tired. but refuse to sleep till its bedtime. unpacked n all! yayy. settled in. feels kinda like i'm in a hotel cuz it's so FREAKING COLD in my room. it's jan. the peak of winter. and our heater is spoilt, what luck. so slept in thick long sleeves n long pants n thick blanket. and it doesn't help that my nose is still running. ughh. will stuff myself with organic pills in the hope i'll get better before leaving for greece.

back in ulu indy

so...i'm back. staying at the daudts' house (they're sponsors of mukappa) with the other girls who are helping out with orientation. the guys stay somewhere else. anw..the plane ride was AWFULLY HORRIBLE. turbulence like every other hour on my 15hr ride from hongkong to chicago. blehh. can't even go toilet. at least i was sittin at the aisle. next to this angmoh guy who kept offering me food. haha.

AND the stupid united airlines (note to self - don't ever take northwest OR united ever again) lost my luggage. only my guit arrived. so upset can cry! but then went for dinner and then back to the airport to pick someone else up..and by then God answered my prayer and my bags arrived! thank thank thank God. wouldn't be able to survive without my bags. seriously. so..slept alot wed night and last night. slept my jet lag away.

yayy. feeling better today. nothing much to do though. only planning for worship. and waiting excitedly for the new freshman to arrive! yay! :) so been catchin up with everyone abt their summer..they all asked me how matchmaking went. haha. i said it takes time for couples to get married. can't believe i'm back here though. feels like i just left ystdy.

at first didn't really wanna leave sgp. at all. like really didn't. think cuz i've been back for 3 months it feels like the same. so cannot bear to leave again!! but now that i'm here..i'm excited for the new yr to start!! besides, i'll be back soon! i roughly checked out my schedule..think my exams end on wed night!!!!! aahhh! so i can maybe be back arnd fri night!! so maybe can go see u guys at the adventure camp.. :) anw yup! cont to pray for me that i'll get settled in well..moving in and everything. loves!