Miss you

*Warning* This is going to be a mushy (sorta) post. Haha.

I miss my dear! Haha. (Told you so) I think I miss him a lot cos Yvonne has Daryl here… haha. So it’s like a constant reminder of Steven. Plus, I think he’s so ke3 lian2… doing the IE modules in NUS almost alone. Hai. But like I said before in my msn nick: thank God for skype! It’s a really powerful communication tool. =)

miss you miss you

I also miss my family, brothers and sisters in church, and friends. But I think it’s just different with bf… haha. I’m not being zhong4 se4 qing1 you3 (biased towards bf) but I think it’s a completely different set of emotions involved. Haha. But seriously seriously, I do really miss my family and friends. Hard to put into words… only when you’re alone in another country then you’ll experience the feeling. It’s good that I learn to be appreciative I guess.

*absence does makes the heart grow fonder* but I want to add that it will only grow fonder if you maintain contact… else I personally feel that absence makes the heart grow colder instead. SO, it’s very important that I keep God close too, even though I’m apart from the fellowship for now. =)

Thanks!

I just want to say thanks to the people who sent me off... haha... I know it’s kinda lagging… haha. But I’m reminded of this cos of the thermal flask that I’m using here. It’s very good! Hot water that I placed into the flask at night still remains hot the next night. Thanks to Linda, Yun Woei, Yu Feng and Leonard! Haha.

I also want to thank Pin Xiu, Ede and Li Shan for the pineapple tarts… haha… I haven’t “activated” it yet. Haha… waiting for Chinese New Year before I open it.

Today we (Daryl, Yvonne and me) ate pizza for the first time, as in the frozen type from the supermarket. And it’s actually quite nice! And convenient! Don’t need to wash the pot and pan. Haha… we are lazy lah.

Daryl have all his housemates liao… cos today the new one just arrived. Hai. Poor me still all alone. Griefs. But it’s good in the sense that I can hang my clothes on the toilet heater. Haha.

I cooked... haha

I finally cooked!!! hahaha. A really simple meal la – spaghetti, two meatballs, two slices of ham and tomato sauce. Basically this is what we eat everyday to save money. Haha. Today I bought slightly more stuff, like cheese and frozen vegetables (cos fresh veg is too ex… for example one cabbage is like 3 euros i.e. S$6!!) so I can have a bit of changes. Hahaha. I also have egg and tuna, but I haven’t decided when to “activate” those… cos those are more ex. Haha.

oh ya, I watched the City Harvest service... thank God for that... so that at least over here I have some sorta online church for a while. haha.

Anyway, other than that, below are more pics! Haha.

it's Zara! and it looks exactly like the Singapore one.

Finland is the land of Nokia

this is the biggest church in Helsinki

it's "mars, twix, snickers" poker cards! haha. we got it free from buying the chocolates. daryl and I both wanted it... then in the end he gave me... so nice hor. haha. but these chocolates are cheap that's why we bought them. the really fantastic chocolates are the locally made ones! it's super duper yummy lo... and this is someone who doesn't really eat chocolates somemore. haha.

Some Pictures

Four of us in Helsinki (Capital of Finland)

The main building of my university

The library look like this... cool or what?!?

Ok, I wanna restart blogging. Haha...

I think this is like the 3 or 4th time I'm saying that. Haha. But anyway, I’ve been in Finland for like almost a week liao… it’s 6 hours behind Singapore’s time, but with the amount of sunlight here, I feel almost as if I’m still in Singapore’s time. Why? Cos the sun rises at around 9 to 10 am and sets by 4pm. Haha. So it’s now 6 pm, but it feels like 10 plus liao.

Anyway, it’s cold here… around 0 degrees C now. But it’s the warmest winter in the history of Finland… by right it should be -7 or lower by now. But it’s better for me like that! Haha I get some time to adapt, and I get to witness the change from no snow to snow! Haha. Today Daryl, Yvonne and I are so fascinated by the ice on the puddles. They look like glass on the road (potholes). Haha. And we are almost always “smoking” here! Haha, I’m still very amused by the ‘smoke’ coming out of our mouths here. Haha.

Anyway, I got pretty homesick two days ago. I think it’s combined with pms. Cried like a crazy woman. Hahaha. For a while lah, forgive me I’m a true blue girl. Haha. But I think I’m learning to adapt. Haha.

On ya, it’s very expensive here. Haha. Finland is the most or one of the most expensive places in Europe. Traveling here costs a bomb! Haha one trip on the bus costs like 3 euros (i.e. S$6). I can take cab in Singapore liao. Haha.

One thing that’s fantastic about here is that there are no creepy crawlies!!! Haha, no ants, cockroaches, lizards! Haha it’s too cold for them I guess. Haha. So my food and can place them anywhere. And oh ya, the fridge here doesn’t feel cold cos outside is so much colder! Haha, so weird hor? Sometimes I wonder if the fridge is cold enough cos it feels so different. Haha. And what do I eat here? Pasta and chicken and meatballs and frozen vegetables and bread. Hahaha. Food is expensive too, but the above things are cheaper. Haha so that’s what I eat. Oh ya! But I love the yogurt here. It’s very nice tasting. Haha duno how to describe. Haha.

By the way, I have a nice view from my room… I face the sea. But as it gets colder I think I’m going to suffer for my view. Haha. Cos it’s gonna be cold here! But I like my bed area, it’s very nice to do quiet time there. And cos it’s really quiet here (no insect sounds, nothing. Just stillness) you sorta feel closer to God when you read the bible here. =) And cos it's quite quiet here, I also feel abit scared, so I play music overnight (which I usually don't)... I play Hillsong stuff (13 hours of it. haha) and it feels better. Haha, and sorta some spiritual food in my sleep. Hee.

Finland

I've been in Finland here for a while liao, since 1 Jan... meant to update my blog since I'm here... haha. But for now I still have things to do so once I'm very bo liao already I'll do a proper entry! Love everyone back home!

my 21st birthday

haha... once again... this is actually a lagging post. haha... think my days have been such a rush that I really dun have much time for myself... all my time is given to family, church, studies, hall, and module4000... (hahaha)

anywayz, the reason why I'm blogging is for the sake of telling the world wad a lovely bday party I had on the 19th... but then, I'm so tired that I dun feel like saying much liao... so maybe I should just let the pics do the talking.

But just to summarize, I felt like a princess that day cos I was wearing a lovely dress (bought it with li min, yvonne and melissa) with makeup (courtesy of lindalala and fishie) and heels. My family was so supportive with my mom taking care of the cake and all, my dad taking care of so much other stuff and my brother taking photos! It was so nice wif all my friends and love ones around me... heehee :)

the pics can be found here photoshttp://www.zorpia.com/cgi/album.cgi?album_id=626452 but I'll just put some on the blog:

my flowers and me :)

my presents!

~ my lovely champagne cake~

long ago.....

here's something I promised long ago... showing off (hahaha) some of my tioman pics... so lagging. HahaHa.

*sorry peeps, I'm guilty of not updating my blog*

Let me first answer my commentors :)
to Shaun: Sure!! I'll msg you soon k?
to Daniel Kwok: Haha... thanks for your greetings. haha. Everything's fine, except that now I'm burnt. Haha, read on to know why.

to EveRyOnE: ... think this hols have been so super busy that I've barely had time to just sit at the computer to type anything. Serious! In fact, checking my mail is enough to kill me. Haha, think I've exceeded my mail limit a few times. Haha. Oh well, whatever.

Anyway, why have I been so busy? I'm I working? Noooooooo! That's the WORST thing! Haha, I'm not having income coming in!!! Argh. So what have I been doing? Hmmm, after sea sports camp I had two weeks of attachment. It was pretty interesting and insightful. :)

Then, I went to Malaysia to visit my grandmama for a week. Haha, I ate so super much. I can't believe that my stomach is actually capable of that much intake! From the moment I arrived till I left, I don't think I ever felt hungry. Haha. It was the same daily cycle of this: wake up, breakfast - lunch - tea - dinner - supper, sleep!!

Soon after that I left for Batam for my church camp. It was nice to just spending the time with my church frenz. :) and I was really blessed to be placed in the same room with my dear sister Yu Yan. And, once again, I bought a *ahem* Pierre Cardin (duno if it's spelt like that) bra from Batam. I just HAD to! Haha, it's so cheap there! Goodness... it's like $25 here, but only $10 there! Haha, the auntie in me speaking again. Oh well. Haha.

When I came back, it was off to Engin Camp le. I think it was the greatest test of how little I can sleep. Haha. Everyday I think I only slept 4 to 5 hours, and on the last night (it was a six day thing for us) I didn't even sleep. Edelene sent me home that morning, so I immediately fell into my bed and slept from 7 am to 6 pm. Haha... woke up for dinner, then I slept again from 9 pm to 10 am. AMaZinG!~ never slept that much before. Haha.

So when that was over, it was time to do my "meet-my-frenz annual event"... sighs, so sad hor? It can only be done annually. But seriously, it's too tough for all of us to meet up during term time... boo boo. And, it was during this time that I watched at least two and a half world cup matches... cos I'm too lousy at staying up till 3am. I become too zonked if I stay up.

After two weeks of that, I went for a 3-day Tioman trip, haha. And I just came back yesterday. I must upload the pictures!!! Haha. So that's why I'm burnt and in pain. HAha. It was less activity filled compared to Redang. But it was nice being there with friends. We also got to see a beautiful sunset and many many stars and a moon rise! Haha.

Soon it's going to be room balloting time... sighs, hope we'll be able to stay together in good rooms... *hopeful*

Ok! Phew... I know that I'm so long winded... haha, sorry about it. Haha. Anyway, that's all for my super long blog post... *guilty* Haha.

Good Grief

GoOOOooooooooooooOOOooooooooD Grief.

Geez man. So much has happened since I last blogged... but I can't reallie say much partly cos of my home internet... which is a pathetic 56k dial up connection. Haha.

To sum it all, my life have been nuts. Yup. And I think "nuts" is only the description of the tip of the iceberg of what has happened over the past month. Good greif.

P.S. Just came back from Sea Sports Camp. I'm totally burnt and black. And I'm currently in love with wind surfing. Haha.

Huge Sigh Of Relief

There's no better description than "Oh my God" (P.s. Sorry God!).

Today is the final submission of my Software Engineering project. Oh man, I think I've never experienced a more excruciating project (like crucio in Harry Potter! Argh!) experience… but to be honest, also some extent of fun lah. Plus I was really happy cos everyone of us had a part to play in the project, it was collectively ours! =)

Anyway, we stayed over in Daryl’s house to do this project so many times that I lost count. I’m so familiar with his house that I think it has become my third home (after my true home and hostel). But of course we did have fun lah. Haha like pouring powder over Steven’s head and specs. HAha. And yesterday they also played a prank on me by exchanging my precious pillow with Daryl’s one. But I couldn’t tell which was mine! Hahaha, until I smelt it. Haha. Oh well.

But seriously, last week was the most packed week I ever ever had. I had:
- Human factors presentation
- Human factors project completion
- Engin professionalism presentation
- Software engineering project submission
- Probability quiz
- Probability homework submission
- Quality engineering quiz
- Gem Paper 2 Submission
- Yvonne’s 21st birthday party (on 8th April)
- Ching Yin’s 21st birthday party (on 9th April)

I suffered through the school work lah, haha but I enjoyed myself at the parties. Each had its own flavor.

Yvonne’s one was a BBQ and I know so many of her friends so it was more like being with a family of friends. And her cake was a cookies and cream ice cream cake! Haha, although only a small piece, but very yummy!

Ching Yin’s one was held at her home. Hers was more high class…with music and candle lights. So I had to be more well behaved. Haha. And I think my gang (i.e. the happy12) was the most piggish. Haha... we ate alot! The food was great. Haha.

April's Fool

I've concluded that I'm extremely gullible... haha I kena cheated by Yvonne and Melissa. Haha.

what staying in hall has taught me

Definition Hall
a hostel with lotsa activities.

Today I was just reflecting on what I've gathered along the way during my stay here in hall... this is roughly what crossed my mind:

1. I learnt how to wash my clothes using the washing machine (courtesy of Yan Ying and Li Shan)
2. I learnt how to eat food that's not fantastic and convince myself that it's quite ok
3. I learnt how to eat very little or simply no rice (courtesy of Ching Yin and Pearl)
4. I learnt how to get rid of a small lizard (absolutely horrifying experience since I hate/detest/loath/abhor/you-get-the-idea lizards)
5. I learnt how to get rid of beetles (courtesy of Pin Xiu)
6. I realised that I can survive with lousy toilets as long as there's hot water
7. I realised that I drink alot of water... like more than 2.5 litres a day
8. I realised that I love fruits
9. I realised that Old Chang Kee and New Zealand Ice Cream are dangerous forces
10. I realised that I love swimming more than running, although I do still like running
11. My eyebag and dark eyerings are becoming more obvious... seems linearly distributed witht the amount of time I spend in hall... (but may be cos of NUS rather than hall)
12. And... it taught me independence and how important my family is to me.

To my dearest fish out of water friends

I miss Mel Mel and Edeleneee!
Haha... for those who duno who they are, they are basically my good friends away from home... on a overseas student exchange programme. =) Haha, like fish out of water in Chicken Little! Haha.



I saw this http://dingo.care-mail.com/cards/flash/5409/abc.swf and tot of you, Mel... haha cos of all the flowers.

By the way, yesterday I happened to walk into a Hallmark shop, and guess what? I bought you a small precious moments card!!! It says "Our friendship's in the bag"... which relates back to our friendship basket theory! Haha... thinking of sending it over wif a birthday card from Yvonne and I. Email me your address can? Haha. =) When you come back then we can celebrate your 21th properly!

And Ah Ma (aka Edelene!). Haha... I guess IBM is still giving you a headache. Poor girl. And you must seriously miss chilli. Haha... think whenever I eat yong tau foo I'll think of you. Haha. By the way, hall food still sucks. HaHAHAHha. Anywayz, oso miss you too!

(warning: boring post) Busy and Tired

I'm so so so tired... going to sleep soon. Sighs... I wanted to post stuff for this whole week... stuff which is not about me being tired... but my dream of doing that is *poof* cos of school work. Argh. Nevermind, once I regain my energy, I'll do something about doing what I want to do! :P

Old Victorian's Day

Tomorrow (or actually today given that now it's 1pm) will be Old Victorian's Day! I sorta feel like going back to VJ... haha, to visit the place, meet the teachers (especially my PA teachers and technicians!), and feel old. HAha. Here's a picture of the VJ Bear!

But oh well... but I have a CS2103 midterm test tomorrow... so I better go sleep liao. Haha! I must get my 8 hours of sleep!

(By the way, today I was inspired to go for prayer meeting... hahahaha. Amazing)

I'm supposed to be studying...

Yup, that's what I should be doing... haha given that I have 4 tests coming up. Haha, but I'm having a bit of a weird stomach feeling... so dun feel like doing work for a teeny weeny little while. :P

Think maybe it's cos I ate a very chilli hot bowl of yong tau foo today... haha. The chilli was so powerful! And I think my resistance to chilli hot is above average... so you can imagine the power of the chilli. Haha. I was tearing throughout the entire time I ate it, and my nose started to run and my lips swelled up like sausages! I think I must have looked very lang2 bei4

sighs

Just felt like sighing... why? Cos I saw how updated other people's blogs are... haha and my poor blogie is gathering digital cobwebs. Diaoz... haha... but now that I've started... I think I've really left out alot of things that I would have liked to have posted on... :P

Anyway... I'll try to not lag that much from now on la. Haha... yeah riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight. Knowing myself, hmm, even I'm skeptical of myself! Bleah. I think I should stop my rubbish. And just share a childhood story (which I told Yvonne today so I was reminded of it. Haha).

When I was very young (maybe around 6?), I asked my parents,

"What's 4 plus 4?"

"8" They replied.

"Then what's 3 plus 5?"

"8 also"

"How can it be?" I exclaimed, in amazement and confusion.

That's all to my story. Hahahahhaha... don't faint from diao-ness!!!
(Sighs... I think I'm just feeling v sian.)

Hockey and Christmas!

Wow... have been so super busy for the past few weeks! Firstly, it was the mad rush of Christmas... thank God for the wonderful experience of acting and singing (solo! gasp!) for the first time in my life! Thanks to all who came. =) Secondly was the mad rush of buying, making, writing my Christmas cards and presents! Thanks for all your love! Haha.

And now, my Hockey Inter-Hall Games is just over... we had the matches on the whole day today... it was crazy! Haha, playing 5 games in a day... adrenaline rush. Haha. But now got a big big bruise just below my knee. But whatever lah, "war injuries" haha. I think I really do like (certain) sports a lot. Haha.

My Kayaking Expedition

Yesterday I went on a NUS kayaking expedition to the northern islands of Singapore, with Fish. (Haha, and nope, I unfortunately did not see any real fishes... my friends saw some flying fishes though... ai ya, I'm just blind. Haha). Our route was roughly the one in pink. =) By the way, the water was super-duper-fantabulous-ly dirrrrty. I think it was shit everywhere. *pukez*

Before the rain

At first, it was totally burning and I was soaking myself in sunblock, because I was already burnt from the previous One Star kayaking course. Then later, on the way back (the green part of the route), the weather became pretty bad. The sky was dark, the waters were super choppy, the winds were torrential, there was thunder and lightning all around us, and the rain was crazy! We could hardly see ahead of us!!! But, oh man, the adrenaline rush was fantastic.

Just before the rain

Fish and I were paddling like crazy women. Haha... all the way we were like "go Go GO!" and "LEFT, RIGHT, LEFT, RIGHT" (like dragonboaters. HAha) And, to psycho ourselves, we went "Come on! ONE MILLION DOLLARS!!!" Haha... we were pretending that we were part of the Amazing Race. HAHAHaha.

It was a great experience. Plus we had the satisfaction of being the second team (first girl term) to reach the shore... Muahahaha. =)