flying on sunday after all! yay.. God really provides. it was really rather amazing, cos yesterday I gave up hope and emailed yin nah to ask her to fetch me on saturday, and then this morning my uncle said there was space for me yippee~ also rather amazing the way I got my flights in progression. first it was sq on 6th jan 5pm, then 7th jan 9am, then 7th jan 5pm, then finally the flight i wanted. kinda weird cos when we were leaving for the first time i didn't want to leave on sunday, preferred saturday. and now it's the other way round. ah well.
i must also figure out how to get rid of the dvd i have so boah can get me the limited edition from korea. haha. darn. she's really sweet about it though. this is why US return policy is good, normally it's like 45 days with receipt. and kino is 7 day exchange policy. sad case.
it's been a mad rush! okay not really, but packed enough. tuesday met junming for lunch.. catching up was good.. and met yingling and anna in wisma! pleasant surprise no. 1:) after that i was walking along shaw underpass and met chris and estelle and engsiang! pleasant surprise no. 2:) it's rather hard to bump into people at stanford, and even if i do they're not necessarily people i know well, so i guess it's doubly pleasant now heh.
was supposed to cut hair on wed but shop was closed, so bummed around at home. oh.. made konnyaku jelly and my favourite fried dumplings! munch munch munch. yesterday went to novena sq to eat with christine and rachel. i have no idea why when i come back people like asking me if i'm attached. well it happened at least thrice so i figure that's substantial enough. haha.
anyway it was fun, and also interesting to retrace the familiar walk to the learning lab. really nothing changes. christine was so cute about the card, made the little snowmen stand up and was telling me excitedly "they're double-sided!" and she drew them herself. which is even more amazing cos they're really kinda small (and hard to draw & cut, i conclude)
went shopping and had some problems carrying her present around until i bought stuff at john little's.. the sale is quite crazy. but it's nice to get good bargains. and as usual i was inflicted with indecision and had to come back later to buy track pants/bedsheet. which wasn't such a good idea, cos by the time i went back it was peak hour so all the working people were buying stuff. ah well.
oh yes it's so annoying to walk about orchard and have people approach you and ask you to 1. donate 2. buy things 3. fill up surveys about something or other. why can't they leave us alone.. ugh.
i finally cut my hair today. my head suddenly feels very light. but again i go through this practically every year, or every two years. heh. and he decided to spray some colour so now i have golden-brown-ish hair! hmmm. oh well. it'll wash off tonight anyway.
how can you miss something that's right in front of you?
ahh. i have five days left here and i don't want to go back again. i'm like missing home in advance. it's so nice to have accessibility to town and different parts of spore. and to have good food. although truth be told i think america's desserts are better, today's andersen's ice cream somehow wasn't as nice as like.. coldstone's. haha. but of cos coldstone's is one of the best so that probably isn't a very fair comparison.
i have no idea how i managed to go out of the house without a wallet today, but thankfully i had $10 in my bag. sad case man. anyway. yes. it is when time runs out that one starts panicking. my french is still half baked! (here i remember my dormmate ed's wise words, although in the different context of me trying to finish my ihum paper,: in a couple of hours it'll be fully baked!)
and i still need to meet pple, and to shop and buy stuff - the shopping part is easy, the buying isn't. suddenly there isn't enough time again. sigh.
so, back to missing home in advance. i can already see myself back in my dorm and getting bored. and missing pple and all. ahhhh. human psychology; reverse psychology. actually i'm not even sure if that's the right word. wanting things you can't have? okay it's time for bed.
after blog surfing i decided it's time for reflections on 2005. time really flies.. partly realise it when i have to move to different classes in church heh. teenagers class was from sec 1 to 4, then young adults class jc 1 - last year, and now we decided to crash the foundation class, which is really for young christians but nvm.
anyway it doesn't feel like a year since we finished A's. i mean i suppose if i did go think about what i've done since then, it has been a year. but other than that, nah. and it's also weird starting school in late sept. heh. it always seemed so right that with the start of a new year, a new school year starts too.
so.. after the mad rush of uni apps and holidaying in sydney, came back to a job! thanks to my aunt.. first taste of how boring working life is, how i felt so cooped up in an office 9 - 5. 9 - 6 to be accurate. so that was january. i actually became rather attached to the place, i can't imagine why, given that the work was so boring, but well. i guess i kinda got to know some of them better nearer the end.
february was chinese new year and slacking around at home, waking up late. CNY, wondering if next year i'd get to miss it. i don't like CNY cos we're not very close to my dad's relatives so it's kind of a chore meeting them. actually it isn't that bad, i did talk to my girl cousins a couple of times. but i still don't like it anyway.
march was results. heh. what a way to open the month. but it was nice to see everyone again. and results were alright, thanks be to God! and relief teaching at RJ.. man.. i'll never forget denise's class. they left me really speechless. not that i normally have a lot to say to begin with, but that was definitely an experience. and the zoo. haha. also definitely another experience.
april was US uni results. another way to open the month. i know i was in a very very bad mood on friday (1st apr) cos i wasn't getting into places i wanted to go. and it didn't help that i was stuck at work at ubi the entire day. but i woke up on saturday to ser's sms and switched on my computer and opened my mailbox to an email i couldn't believe. i really thank God for his blessings. and am thankful that I still could go without a scholarship, even though this is definitely not a very ideal state of affairs.
and there was choir concert, which was cool. and started teaching at NJ. there's another new experience, teaching GP was never something I envisioned myself doing.
may. mid-may, ended my teaching (YEAH..) and flew off to Boston for brother's graduation. i found myself wondering how he could uproot himself from 4 years' worth of living there. but i guess there wasn't really a choice. and also wondering why most of his friends were asian. but now i know.
june. came back in 2nd week of june, left a couple of days later for church camp. that was fun.. i'm so glad i got to know church pple better.. it's amazing (in a bad way) how i got through so many years without talking to them very much. unfortunately i'm very capable of doing such things. hmm. nvm. at least that's addressed.
july. started with learning lab. one of the most interesting things i've ever come across.. and working with younger people was nice for a change. okay well relief teaching would sort of come under that category, but it's kind of different somehow. anyway i was kind of bored until i started annoying rachel, i can't remember when i started that actually but well.
august. also spent in learning lab. besides annoying rachel, there was christine too. although i can't remember when i started that either. and then people started leaving one by one.. i think i was really excited when i saw them online and asked them about how life was. but when it was my turn and i had to tell other pple about how my life was, it wasn't so fun. haha.
september. end of job and crazy times.. shopping consecutive days, meeting pple, ... and that eventful day before i left, spent in sentosa and dinner w my grandpa. so tired i hardly wanted to pack. and the night before i left, when i was near hysterical cos i was so afraid of what i was getting myself into and i had to come online and whine at ser, who did a pretty gd job of counseling me i think;) and then stanford.. a whole new experience.
october. second week of classes, still slacking around, thinking i was very free, and then that first ihum paper which i wrote in two days. i don't think i've ever felt so desperate in my life. well subsequent papers did bring on the same feeling, albeit less intense, but that was still the first time. which was the worst. oh and of cos, birthday! haha. day was rather uneventful but dinner was fun!
november. big game and thanksgiving week. i never want to watch another football game. heh. thanksgiving week = catching up on sleep, getting a bike (finally! the way i can survive without things there is amazing) corteo!!! ahh. and gilroy.
december. end of quarter, where has time gone? dead week with primal scream every night, finals, and time to come home! yay. i like being home. but all the same, it's time to go back and conquer the world. okay i have no idea why i put that last bit in, it just sounded nice. sometimes i wonder how to refer to stanford. "stanford"? "california"? "back there"? heh. more like second home or something. i wonder.
it's been a really interesting year though. hope this year'll be better!