I went for my second surfing class the other day. We finally went to the great ocean, the weather was amazing, finally a sunny day after more than a week of rain! Paddling out into sea was a bit scary, firstly, I was slow; secondly the waves look intimidating somehow. After a while, I got slightly more comfortable and paddled outwards. Then the big waves came…. WHAM… the instructor shouted “turtle”, but I didn’t react in time and I was buried under one and quickly struggled to get myself up. Then paddled towards the instructor. We lingered in the open sea for a while, trying to ‘catch’ some waves. After some time, another big wave came, and WHAM and I went under it again. When I tried to get up again, I realised that my right arm was hurting. It was the old injury from army time and I sorta twisted my biceps/triceps or something. Then I realised that I have trouble paddling, and was running out of breath thanks to the seawater, and I went back to shore to rest my arm. I think surfing may not be my cup of tea =(

Ballroom dancing is pretty interesting. The good thing is most are beginners, so no stress of being noob. So far, we learnt basic cha-cha-cha and foxtrot. Pretty cool. It’s hard to dance with someone who’s taller than you though, luckily we have the chance to switch partners. Some of the music selection doesn’t seem to fit the genre of the dance, for example, there were some rock/R&B songs used initially for the cha-cha-cha. lol. I wonder if there’s any praise and worship songs for that. haha.

Hip Hop dancing is taught by some guy from Texas, pretty funny guy. Although the music is not usually the kind that I listen to, the dance moves are pretty fun to do. And they are not too complicated,the instructor breaks it down and makes it easy to learn for us. It’s quite cool when the whole class dances together in sync making the correct steps and sounds. remains me of mass dance. haha.

Last Friday, I went to an Intervarsity Guys’ Night, probably the most interesting party I’ve been to. No, it’s not the drink and get weird party. It’s a decent one at someone’s house. Supposed to have a bonfire but it rained. But anyway, his house is pretty awesome with a pool table in the garage, foosball table, xbox, ps3, wii, whatever you name. There’s even a casino table set complete with all the chips and stuff. Very cool. I made quite a number of friends, somehow there were quite a big proportion of Asian Americans here, and everyone’s like 19/20 years old. I feel old sometimes. And for me, there are always two typical interesting conversation start-off points: 1. You can drink in Singapore on the streets when you are 18 (as compared to here, you can only drink when you are 21 and you can’t drink on the streets publicly). 2. Of course, the classic ‘advertisement’ that you can’t chew gum in Singapore that’s why our streets are really clean. Haha.

It’s week 5, halfway through the quarter. It’s the midterm period, it’s crazy. It’s February, I’m in America for 1.5 months already. Time flies! Chinese New Year and Valentine’s Day is coming soon. And believe it or not, I have not webcam-ed with anyone yet. Guess sometimes it’s good to have no strings attached, rather than waking up at 6am when it’s 10pm in Singapore. Food here is making me fat, and while the buffets are good, the menu is starting to repeat. My friends are craving Singapore food, perhaps I’m too easily satisfied. I miss church, playing L4D (lol), and my guitar.

Saw this online somewhere and decided to post it up. I’m quite amused by some of the station names and we have a LRT to Johor? sure not?

(I want to add photos, but don’t have time yet, so read the boring text if you want.)

21 December 2009: Fifth Avenue

So finally here’s the first post of one of the many trips that I had. On 21 December, I left on my long journey to the United States. It was a teary departure from my family at Changi in the wee hours of the morning. I never knew what it truly means to be alone with Jesus until now. It’s quite sad to think that I will not be seeing my loved ones and friends for the next 6 months. 6 hours later, I was in Narita. “The stars were brightly shining” during the night of the flight. Very many stars. The 6 hours flight to Tokyo was quite fast, and I watched 500 days of summer and a night at the museum 2, taking naps in between. The 12 hour flight to JFK needed more patience. I was alternating between eating, sleeping, and going to the toilet (duh). The lady sitting beside me has weird habits of stretching her legs up in the air lol. Although I was tired since i didn’t sleep the previous night, it is not easily to sleep in such a crammed space. I watche inglorious basterds, land of yh lost, shorts and a little bit of GI Joe, before falling asleep in between. I think next time should sit at aisele seat or emergency exit although the window seat gave me pretty good views of the snowly manhattan as we landed. Seeing bulldozers pushing snow around the runway is an interesting sight! There’s like snow everywhere, on top of the roofs and beside the Tarmac etc. So very cool.

Landing on snow capped roofs and grounds was very surreal. Stepping out into the coldness of 0-5 deg was double surreal. However, entering the airport wasn’t a very pleasant experience. I’m typing this now waiting for the luggage for like 20mins plus already and they say it was due to snow hence delay and changi airport isn’t no.1 for no reason. The lighting at JFK was moody, the ceilings are low, the baggage conveyor belts are old and making a lot of noise. And I’m still waiting for the luggage 1.5 hours after landing. Grrr.

Taking the NYC Subway was even more interesting. First impressions of the NYC subway as compared to Singapore’s MRT: it’s older, darker and dirtier. But of course, it’s more extensive and complicated than ours. They have multiple lines running on multiple parallel tracks into the same station. And no platform screen doors and the platform gap is quite unevenly high.j Actually it seems and sounds more like a traditional locomotive train than a modern subway. You can’t cross train cars within the train. The information systems are quite adequate – telling you  where the train goes with announcements and LED screens, but no estimated time info.

Upon reaching 96th St, I lugged my luguage out of the traditional turnstile gate, through a dark mine-like underpass and pulled out into the snowly cold night. It was only 5pm but the sun had already set. Walked to the Fresh hostel, ah, they say they are at another hostel at Candy. Walk to another one, can’t find Joshua and Vanessa. I used the computer for a while and fortunately they arrived soon after. We went to a nearby supermarket and bought dinner and ate in our room. Budget mah.

We went to Fifth Avenue, had a look at Apple Store, and walked down the streets of shops and shops, like GAP, H&M and all the big name brands. H&M looked pretty nice, if I had all the money, I’ll buy my whole wardrobe from there. lol. We strolled towards Grand Central Terminal, took a quick look, before heading back.

22 December 2009: Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge

Day 2 morning we went to queue for tickets for broadway at Pier 17. There was a long queue of people at 10am and we bought tickets for West Side Story the next day. After that, we walked down Wall St towards Trinity Church, then down towards Battery Park. Fortunately we bought our tickets online and hence we can cut the queue for the ferry to Liberty Island. The security check was a bit strict and long though. The ferry ride was pretty cool and cold, and the Statue of Liberty looked smaller than I thought. When we wanted to inside the Statue’s Pedestal, there was security checks again! Quite troublesome. We didn’t manage to get the crown tickets to go all the way up though. After that, we decided to skip Ellis Island and went back to Manhanttan. We took a train down to Brooklyn and started our leisurely walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. By then, it was just nice sun set time and the colours and views were awesomely beautiful. The lights from the skyline were very nice with the sky colours.

After that, we went down to Times Square to meet some of josh’s friends and parents. We decided to eat at Planet Hollywood, slightly exorbitant, but the food was interesting. The restroom even had a server to pass you soap, towel, and there are like moisturising cream for you to use. Initially, I didn’t give any tips. The second time I went, the guy ask, where you from? Singapore don’t give tips? Haha, then I was obliged to give some. After dinner, we walked around Times Square and we decided to eat cheesecakes at Junior’s. They said to be the best in the world! The funny thing was, we didn’t want to eat inside the restaurant, so we set outside and eat instead, in sub-zero temperature. lol. People must think we are crazy to do that.

23 December 2009: Central Park, Times Square

The next day, we took a train up north to try Absolute Bagels, recommended by some guidebooks. One of the best bagels in NYC supposedly. It’s pretty good, with bacon and cream cheese in it. After that, we went to Cathedral of St. John The Divine, one of the largest and oldest church buildings in NYC. It’s really really really huge and grand and old, one of the largest long nave/sanctuary I’ve ever been into. Very nice and peaceful place. After that, we went to Central Park, and it was beautiful with all the snow. We stopped by the American Natural Musuem of History, but we didn’t have time to go in, so we just took photos with Roosevelt. Haha. After that, we had to rush down to Broadway in Times Square to catch our musical. The musical was good, but the bad thing was I was falling asleep in the afternoon so I couldn’t pay attention to some parts. Cannot watch matinee shows in future! After that, we walked around Times Square again, before we went to Penn Station to meet a friend. But we couldn’t contact him, so we decided to go down Little Italy/Chinatown and see what food we can get. Chinatown seemed pretty quiet at night, so we ate at some French/Italian restaurant instead. It was pretty good pasta.

24 December 2009: Allentown

Today marks the first day of our road trip. We lugged our luggage unto a Greyhound bus to Allentown, and we were left stranded at the bus terminal before we found a cab to take us to the car rental at the airport. Josh found a good offer for National car rental there, and we got free upgraded from a full-size sedan to a huge SUV. It was a surprise – a huge, spacious, sparkling new Chevrolet Traverse. It seats 7, although we have only 3, so there was plenty of space for all our luggages. Hurray. I was slightly worried we would have trouble squeezing them in the boot. But we could put them all flat down! Amazing. I bought a T-mobile data plan there so we could start using Google Maps and Gas Buddy. And so, we started our long and treacherous drive to Niagara Falls. Going past the Canadian border was pretty smooth, and Niagara Falls was a little disappointing at night. There were some lights but it was still too dark. So we went to Glengate Hotel and stayed for one night, and that was one of our best hotel stays ever. Very spacious with 2 queen beds, nice and cheap.

25 December 2009: Niagara Falls

We woke up early and drove down to pump petrol, before heading to the falls. We drove from the source of the falls, where there were many nice birds and a small little park, before going to the actual falls itself. It was humongous, and the sprays make it seemed like it was raining. And the most interesting part was, everything around was FROZEN. It is not snow, but literally ice on all the surfaces: the railings, the trees and even the lamppost. The place was like a giant freezer. Really cool. In the process of trying to take excellent photos, I got my camera wet In the end, while trying to clean it, there’s some black spots in the viewfinder. Fortunately, the sensor is still working well.

After that, we drove down to Toronto, and drove around. Nothing much for a Sunday afternoon, pretty quiet. We dropped Vanessa off at the airport and began our long 10 hour drive back to Woodbury at about 4pm.  It was longer than expected, and it was a really tiring drive, and I didn’t dare to drive yet so Josh drove all the way. We checked in at our America’s Best Inn at 2.30am. Phew!

26 December 2009: Woodbury

It’s Boxing Day shopping time! We checked out and went straight to Woodbury Premium Outlets and we shopped for about 6 hours! There were quite a lot of things to see and buy, but I didn’t want to spend to much money at the beginning of the trip. At night, we decided to start our drive northwards towards Adirondack as I wanted to ski. We met a policecar along the way, but he was just checking and making sure we are safe. Haha. At night, we decided to park somewhere and sleep, save hotel costs. Haha. However, it got really really cold in the middle of the night, and I had to reach behind for a blanket. Too cold to sleep in the car, it was probably about 0-10 degrees!

27 December 2009: Adirondack, Montreal

The next day, we drove further upwards to Lake George, and then down on the road to Whiteface Mountain and Lake Placid. It was a clear day and the weather was nice. Later on, I tried to drive a bit, and I drove up the mountains. We stopped by a few places to take photos of the snow mountains and lakes. When we reached Whiteface, the skiing place, it looks really cool. It was expensive, and Josh suggested we go Canada instead. So we drove to Lake Placid, took some photos and left the mountains and continued up the interstate towards Montreal. We crossed the border again, and reached Montreal after sunset. Old Montreal is pretty nice, old and European looking. Too bad we can’t see it in daytime. We then went to search for the ski place – Owl’s Nest. It’s so far away and so deep inside, it was really scary driving in a dark deserted road. Once there, it was cold and empty, and we couldn’t find any lodging. So we decided to go Bromont instead. We drove around to try to search for a cheap hotel, but to no avail. There were many Bed&Breakfast in the guide magazines but all seemed to be closed. The hotels were too expensive – more than $100 for a night. After going to many places and routes, we decided to sleep in the car – again – relunctantly. No choice bah. >.< coldddd

28 December 2009: Skiing, Vermont

It was a snowy morning! Finally I experienced falling snow. The ski lesson was pretty interesting. I was thought by two female instructors, and though they speak mainly French, they could speak English too. They were very friendly and nice. And the best thing was I was the only student! They thought me the v-shaped stuff on the Bunny hill, and after a few rounds, they brought me up the higher hill on the easy route. The easy route was still pretty steep though. I was trying to do my S-curves, but I fell 2 or 3 times and my skis came out. It was a slight struggle to stand back up on the slope, but the instructors were very helpful. When I came down, it was like, phew! I went up again 2 times with Josh, and at the 3rd time, I finally got the hang of it and managed to ski down pretty smoothly, doing my S-curves. However, I do not have poles to support myself, since I wasn’t taught with them. So I was skiing freehand. Pretty fun, but tiring! And sweating in snow is rare! lol. After that, we drove out in the snow, quite hard to drive on sandy snowy roads, and the snow is quite distracting and the traffic is moving quite slowly. We crossed back the border into Vermont. We wanted to try to find the Ben and Jerry’s outlet, but it was hard to find. In the end, we decided to try to look for a hotel to stay instead. We decided to drive all the way to Albany. I drove in some long route, and we almost got lost lol. The best part was my iPhone ran out of batt, so we couldn’t use Maps. We had to rely on our instincts, and the road seemed to be going back to where we came from. In the end, we decided to change our turn. Afterwards, we saw a Chinese restaurant, and it was like a Godsend. We grabbed nice dinner and drove all the way to Albany.

29 December 2009: Allentown

It’s the last day of our car rental. We drove back to Allentown and returned the car an hour late. We lagged our luggage up a public bus and ate dinner in some ulu shopping place in Allentown. Should have just alighted at the metro center. After that, we called for a cab to the bus terminal. Just then, we realised the counter is closed and we haven’t printed our Greyhound tickets! luckily, the person was still inside the office and we asked for a favour to print the tickets even though it was after office hours. Luckily he was quite helpful, although he was complaining, everytime he’s leaving and something happens. The Greyhound arrived in NYC at about 10.30pm, and we took the subway Jamaica, and changed to a metro bus to Howard Johnsons Hotel near JFK, lugging our luggage everywhere. It was our last night in NY.

30 December 2009: NYC to SFO

I woke up early to take a free shuttle to the airport to catch my domestic flight at 9am. There was some technical delays and the flight only departed about an hour later >.< Waste my time. I reached SFO at about 2pm, after 6 plus hours of flight and I gained time again! SF’s weather was really good. Stepping out into the outdoors feels like nothing – 15 degrees compared to 0 degrees is a lot of difference. Finally, I do not need to wear 3 layers and shiver! It felt really really refreshing! Took the skytrain to the BART and took a 30min ride to Powell Station. Walked down some blocks before reaching Adelaide Hostel. The streets were quite a refreshing change from NYC, without all the snow. HA. They directed me to another building – Dakota hostel, where I waited a while for Kep and Law to return from their jog. It was so interesting as it was my first time meeting them. So strange. Haha. I checked into our 5-person room, pretty good for a downtown cheap price. I went for a walk to Citibank before dinner, and JK came soon after too. We then decided to take an evening stroll to the ferry terminal after dinner at Westfield food court. Saw the bay bridge and the sea. Nothing much, and we went back and rest.

31 December 2009: Countdown

It was a nice day, and we took a walk down to Golden Gate Park. Quite nice huge park, but no snow makes the trees pretty much similar to Singapore. We ate lunch at an Indian buffet restaurant – $8.99 for all you can eat Indian curry was the best deal ever! We still like it ever since. We continued our walk towards the Windmill and finally we saw the Pacific Ocean. The waves were huge, and the horizon seems never ending. Too bad it was too cloudy and we couldn’t catch the sun set. We decided to travel back to meet the girls who are arriving today. It was a cat-and-mouse game before we finally managed to find them. We gave a surprise birthday cake to steph – it was pretty funny as it was our first time meeting her too and we are celebrating her birthday! so funny and awkward! We then walked down to find some place to watch the fireworks near the bay bridge. It got crowded soon after and there was a group of dancers/buskers with portable sound systems dancing in front of us. Pretty cool! The fireworks came at midnight and it was longer, nicer than any ever.

1 January 2009: Golden Gate Bridge
It was new year’s day, and since most places will be closed, we decided to go cycling today. We rented bikes from somewhere nearby and cycled along all the piers. The best part was there’s bike paths virtually on every road and priority is given to bikes. It was really cool and nice of them to plan in such a way. We stopped over at Fisherman’s Wharf for some shopping and lunch – the best Fish and Chips. Just then, it started to drizzle. I prayed for the rain to stop, but we continued cycling anyway, past Fort Mason and towards the GG bridge. It drizzled all the way, pretty lightly, but fortunately, when we reached the bridge, it stopped drizzling for a while. Otherwise, it was all covered in fog and rain!

We continued our journey up the bridge, and it started to rain again. And it was getting dark. We cycled quickly across the bridge unto the other side in the pouring rain, into Sausalito, hoping to catch a ferry back. The last ferry was supposedly at 6.30pm, and we cycled as fast as we could, but there were some uphills. The worst part was the bike path was poorly labelled in the dark and we do not know if we are going in the correct direction. One section of the uphill was in total darkness and I had to rely on my instincts and my torch and our phone’s backlight. lol. and with the rain, it was pretty scary. Finally, we saw signs leading to Sausalito and some signs of civilisation and we were relieved. We found the ferry terminal, and we hoped that it will arrive. I went to the website and I realised, it doesn’t operate on New Year’s Day. Oh my. And we waited for nothing, we hoped for nothing! There was another couple waiting too. We then realised that there was a sign pasted at the info counter, but it was too small and inconspicuous to be seen! We then have to find an alternative way back. We called back the bike rental guy but he had no clue. We asked around and we found a bus stop. Fortunately, there was a public bus to go back and the good thing about buses is that they carry bikes too! They have bike racks in front, if only Singapore has that! (The BART had space for bikes too). When the bus came, we could only put 3 bikes on the rack, and the bus driver was kind enough to let the other bikes up onto the back where the wheelchair space is. Otherwise, have to wait for another hour for the bus! When we reached back Post St, we were very relieved and happy to return the bikes and return to our hostel to rest as we were all drenched!

2 January 2009: Lombard, Chinatown

The next day, I went with the girls to take the famous touristy Powell St cable car to Lombard St. The nice thing about SF is that there are so many different cool kinds of transport systems: Cable cars (which are not like the cable cars overhead at mount faber. rather, they are like trains on roads, pulled by cables underneath.), streetcars (single carriage trains that run on roads), trolley buses (buses with electric wires overhead), MUNI (something like LRT), BART (something like MRT but nicer and more spacious), and normal buses. The cable car is one of the oldest and longest surviving one in the world, and it was a pretty fun ride to stand on the side. We reached Lombard St, which is the famous crooked street that runs downhill. After that, we went to Chinatown for Dim Sum, we ate some buffet version which wasn’t very authentic. Should have ate at a proper restaurant. Chinatown makes you feel at home, with all the shops selling soya sauces, chilli and stuff like that lol. We walked down to North Beach and towards Fisherman’s Wharf, where we have Crabs for dinner. Steamed crabs, they are really huge and yummy with Crab Chowder. Great stuff. (we should introduce chilli crab to them!) We took the streetcars back.

3 January 2009: To UCSC

Finally, it’s our last day in SF, and the last day of my long long tour. We woke up, had a quick bite and run some errands, before catching our booked shuttle van which took us directly from our hostel to UCSC. It was a economical, quick, comfortable ride. Reaching UCSC in the afternoon at about 3pm, it was pretty beautiful in the mountains. Really amazing with all the trees and we were very excited to check into our rooms….

to be continued…

This is way overdue as it is already 10 days into 2010. The last 2-3 weeks have been a blast with flying over to USA for a tour in New York and San Francisco and now settling down in UC Santa Cruz for my exchange programme (more on those in another post).

Reflecting back on 2009, thank God for…

• Bringing me into New Creation Church and CAP5 care group, which I believe is by no coincidence, and allowing me to grow more spiritually there and get to know many great friends. I am very thankful for all the fellowship and support they have given me, and I am greatly blessed. And I’m sure everyone else is greatly blessed too.
• Allowing me to embark on a tour in the USA and this SEP journey in the USA for the next 6 months
• Granting me favour and wisdom in my exams. The last semester was probably the best so far, with most of the subjects which I took, I liked them (except for Math). Even so, Math was a miracle, and the CS and NM were great. The three projects which I had to do – A Wii Game for CS3249, a shuttle bus website for CS3240, and an advertising campaign for NM3215, all turned out to be awesome by His grace! He is ever so faithful! Also thanks to the wonderful groupmates which I had.
• Allowing me to experience to be the VP of nuSTUDIOS for a year. It has been a long and challenging time to juggle administrative stuff and the passion for film. Often, the admin stuff sucks your energy away from the passion, but it has been good times with Choices filming and the Durian Complex just before I leave. Even though it was tiring, it was a fulfilling experience!
• Granting me extra time and time more abundantly. It was almost a constant prayer last semester, and God never fails to expand my time to do all the things that I need to do
• For the scubacam website – it was probably one of the most challenging projects that I have done, and finally it is finished.
• For my new dSLR! To take wonderful photos! I should so start a photo blog.
• And lastly, 7 wonderful years of walking with Jesus.

Last Friday, I went for my cousin’s wedding at Swissotel Stamford Ballroom. Before the day, I was considering whether to wear a tie or something different. I was suddenly inspired to buy a scarf. I went to look for one at Bugis Village but found none. Over at Bugis Junction, most of the shops don’t sell, and of those which did, there were limited selection. As I was about to leave, I stumbled upon a pushcart which sells all kinds of scarves. I asked the saleslady for recommendations for scarves for men and I bought 2 for $20. On that day itself, I contemplated for very long whether to wear one or not before deciding to do so. I went Youtube (yes…don’t laugh) to find out what are the different ways to tie a scarf. It would be quite unusual, very experimental, and slightly out-of-this world of me to wear the scarf which I bought. I was afraid that people will think weirdly. On hindsight, as I was trying it out, it looked like tablecloth with checked black and white.

(During the event, some people said the scarf looked not too bad, and I need to have the self-confidence to bring it on. My cousin said I looked like Rain? I guess I need to be less self-conscious and more Jesus-conscious! As You are , so are we!)

The place looked very familiar, then I realised that I went there before 5 years ago for VJC’s 20th Anniversary Gala Dinner. Ah…we had a cocktail reception before proceding in for the dinner. First time there was the ROM solemnization ceremony incorporated before the dinner. Quite interesting. The food was good, my favourite was the cold dish and the dessert was not bad.  Coincidentally, I met yongxue there. Somehow, he knew my cousin through his workplace. What a small world after all…

My cousin hired a pretty impressive video team, which did a short-film-quality MTV-like same-day highlights video, which showed what happened during the tea ceremonies in the morning. It was very cool, the colours were graded very well and the film-like HD quality was quite good. Some samples of similar videos can be found here.

Going to a wedding also makes one think about what would yours be like in future. But I guess it is too early for me to think about that now!

——

School has been good so far. God is good, I have been praying for abundant time and God is certainly faithful in many occasions to multiply my time. On one occasion, I actually reached school half hour earlier. I also managed to finish my CS3240 report in 7 hours on the deadline itself, and the other projects are going on schedule. CS3249 has been the most interesting. Although the project – designing a Wii game – has little to do with the module name, Elements of User Interface Design, it is one of the most fulfilling projects so far.  I did not want to the usual design role, and hence I took up the courage to do the programming role for this project. I had to figure out ActionScript, which was my first time, as well as using the WiiFlash API to program the Bartender game (which another group designed). I had to find out with my teammates how to ‘pour’, ’shake’ and map the cursor based on the infrared sensor. We managed to create a prototype last Monday, and it was fun and amazing to see the game work. Everyone’s been cooperative and the other groups were quite impressive too. NM3215 Advertising Strategies is going to be stressful as our report about Kia Motors is due next Friday and presentation after that. As for Maths, it is a struggle as always to learn and keep up, but by His grace, I will. NM2101 has been interesting but I hope it is not too difficult to score. Somehow, my essay-writing skills are going raw.

Last Monday, I attended the Kent Ridge Ministerial Forum with MM Lee as Guest-of-Honour. It was an interesting but short event as it was my first time in such an event hearing MM Lee speak life. Quite insightful and it is obvious that many people are still interested in politics and Government, just that most of our generation tends to be more nonchalant. MM Lee said that in order for our generation to survive the next 50 years, we need the ruggedness, roburst attitude, will make it, do -or-die attitude like our grandparents/forefathers and understand what it means to be poor. Our forefathers fight against all odds (just like how now Foreign Talent fight with us), and built the Singapore as it is today. I think our generation still has some way to go to learn that, living in so much comfort.

It’s week 10, and 4 more weeks to go. Not long later, after exams, and I will be flying off! For my SEP! To the land of freedom and liberty…in a flight that will cost as much as a computer. haha. I am looking for flights now, it is hard to find a cheap one. Trying to arrange to meet Josh P. there for Christmas too.

I REFER to yesterday’s reports, ‘PM signals a slower intake of immigrants’ and ‘A tip to students: Be driven about causes’.

I am a student at the National University of Singapore. I agree with what Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said that bringing in foreigners will help ‘raise our standards and create a stimulating environment’.

I enjoy working with people from various cultures, having been exposed to them since Secondary 3, which is when the Ministry of Education brings in scholars from China and Asean.

However, at university level, there are sometimes too many foreign students competing for Singaporeans’ space to grow.

For instance, in a mathematics lecture I attended, almost three-quarters of the class comprised foreigners. During in- lecture quizzes, it was obvious that the foreigners were better than the Singaporeans, and so ’stimulated’ the learning environment.

However, it has come to a point where the competition has become stifling and stressful. This is because, in most cases, the foreign students have already learnt lower-level maths and science in their home country. Hence, Singaporeans are at a disadvantage in studying the same subject together with them.

Besides, universities here should give higher priority in offering places to Singaporean students from polytechnics and junior colleges. It is like giving your own children priority in education instead of those of a stranger.

Why should we give priority to foreign students at the expense of Singaporeans? I feel sorry for Singaporeans who have no university place because of this.

Singaporeans should be given more opportunities to learn and grow. Otherwise, many of those who cannot secure a place in a university here will go elsewhere.

[In the Straits Times today]

As I commute through everyday life, I often think to myself, is this the life that I really want? With the stress of school work and projects coming in, I sometimes question the existence and purposes of certain things. It does not help when you have lousy lecturers and you do not think you are learning anything from the lecture. It’s kind of related to ‘the box’ which I mentioned before. What if I am studying in some other place? What will it be like? Will I be changed from a geek to an artsy-fatsy person? Will I dress or look differently? Will my life be different?

Even joining CCAs now seem to be a burden than a joy to me. It used to be something fun which I enjoy doing, otherwise I would not have joined in the first place. However it seemed like things have changed over the months. The amount of planning and admin work is hindering my enjoyment. Maybe because I have done too much of these and they seemed so mundane. Or perhaps it I because the CCA(s) that I joined have a lack of sense of belonging. Not that they don’t have, just not enough I guess. Relationships and friendships are mostly subtle, except for a select few. By a sense of belonging I mean that we do things together – eating, celebrating, studying, relaxing. There are some components, but lack of others, which I have to look for in other groups of friends. (Or maybe some of us have different groups of friends for different purposes, that I’m not sure…) I would not say my social life is very satisfying, although it may seem happening.

I treasure it when good friends do things out of randomness and without much hesitation. Like how I went to play pool with a friend today. Like how a few of us decide to wear a common theme every Thursday (oops I forgot about it last week), how we decide to go for a movie within 5 minutes, how we play Left 4 Dead for 2-4 hours spontaneously, how we decide to go somewhere for a meal. These are the random moments which makes friendships special. While planned outings have their place in keeping in connect with people, the number of random outings shows the degree of spontaneousity and comfort level in your friendships. I think that is quite important. It is definitely more than a facebook wall or MSN message.

Sometimes, it is lonely when I have to do things alone, when I have to stay in school late alone, when I have to eat dinner alone, when I study alone. Although eating alone is a pretty common thing for me nowadays, I still prefer to do it with other people. I have many friends, but I feel lonely. I call it the “lonely crowd syndrome”. Is it because I have too many groups of friends? Or too few good friends who will be with me through thick and thin? Or is it because most people around my age have boy/girlfriends and they spend less time with their normal friends?

I still haven’t found what I am looking for.

The only thing I can look forward to now is going overseas and experience a different kind of life, and to look for what I’m looking for.

1. The smallest childhood experience can have a significant impact on your thoughts of your adult life
2. Dashing with a best friend to the water cooler and proclaiming “HAHA I reach first!” and giving a smirk on the face
3. Writing the same English word about 20+ times down an exercise book can actually improve your spelling and hence English ability
4. Writing the same Chinese word about 10+ times down an exercise book may not actually improve your spelling and hence Chinese ability
5. Saying that your mother wants to complain about the teacher can actually hurt the teacher’s heart
6. A large fish pond with a bridge are essential for any school garden (too bad not all schools have such luxury)
7. ‘Smoking’ was lingo for sneaking out to the mama shop to buy candies and soft drinks
8. How to prepare a WITS presentation with a fish bone diagram which possibly sown a seed in preparing for PW presentations
9. How to type a sentence in WordPerfect for DOS which possibly sown a seed for video editing in Adobe Premiere Pro
10. Music and singing “Sing Your Way Home” and “Top of the World” are essential for all music lessons and all excurison bus rides

10 years after we graduate from CBPS, my friend organised a gathering with some of my primary school classmates and even 3 of our teachers. Some of us change, some of us still look the same. Some faces I don’t recognise, while some faces grew more mature. The teachers have progressed, the students have progressed too. The image of us in the teachers’ eyes are always the little kids running around. The image of the teachers in our eyes are role models which taught us for at least 4-6 years of our lives. (My primary school was really small and I actually had the same Chinese teacher for 5 years (who is also my art teacher) and same form teacher for 3 years and same PE teacher for 6 years.) Fond memories still remain.

I still remember how my friend and I would play the recorder as others sing songs on the excursion bus. How I joined Computer Club and Innovative Club and we create a model of a city with a train moving around using recycled materials. How I had my first experience in a WITS project presentation. How we made a lot of noise in class and tried to mimic some Chinese drama shows. How being a prefect means you can get food at the tuckshop (yes, that’s the word, not canteen) 10 minutes before everyone else. How someone can actually have a crush on you at the age of primary 5? How it rained as we hiked to our campsite in Pulau Ubin. How we ran around the field touching the trees at the edges. How we played “S-T-O-P STOP” at the back of the staircase. How we fed the fish in the gigantic pond. And many many more.

The building is still at Ang Mo Kio St 44. Sometimes I walk pass and wonder if I can trespass inside and peak at the memories.

And how we bid farewell to a school which is no more.

Chong Boon Primary School.

Forward We Strive.