wuihH!!! I haven't been updating this for quite some time already. Anyhow, school has started for 3 weeks and I am doing pretty ok so far.. i think. yep! getting back to the swing of things..research paper coming.. bleargh..! Anyhow, I finally learned how to cook my first meal few weeks ago while at Alana's working on Government project! woohoo! Had minced chicken with tortilla sauce and cabbage. Good food! Cooking's not as torturous as I thought it would be. Well, I probably didn't like cooking before since Home Economics class few years ago was traumatic!

Finally had fencing training last week.. It felt good to be slashing and poking again, though i must say my skills were sort of rusty and I felt like I reacted too slow at most times. Last week we had free fencing for the most part and that sure was a good workout! :)

I am anatomy class this year and so far, I must say it's been the most interesting science class I have ever taken! We got a few pointers on weight-loss stuff! hehehe... as if I can ever lose weight, judging on the fact that I can never resist any temptation when good food is laid before my eyes. :D

tis' pretty random, but i think krispy kreme is better than dunkin donuts! Kaila would greatly disagree to that statement.. hehe

bored.bored.bored.

I finally took my algebra finals yesterday at the library in my brother's college. My neck hurts! argh. The finals consisted of 35 multiple-choice questions. Some required more thinking than others. there were those question that seemed impossible to answer. After many failed attempts to solve THOSE questions, i had to resort to.. guessing. ggrhh.. the direct consequences of procrastinating too much, especially at a course which i am exceptionally untalented at. I don't like online courses... there are too many distractions. I have learned, from this experience, to appreciate school and math teachers better.

I couldn't stop frowning( somewhat discreetly) at random people who proclaim that the weather is awesome! are you out of your mind??I thought to myself. The.weather.is. HOT!! Hotter than Singapore. A month ago, I thought coming here meant getting away from the singapore heat and humidity for good 2 months. well... guess I only got away with the humidity part. Each time i step out from any air-conditioned place, I can literally feel the menacing sun rays piercing through my skin. After a while, my cheeks would feel red and cooked! Worse, I had intelligently left facial sunblock on the other side of the world and not gonna risk applying something that's not prescripted by the docs onto my face. In contrary to people in Asia, i realised people here don't use an umbrella to shelter themselves from the sun. haha. I don't like caps. Therefore, in order to prevent poeple from flashing weird stares at me (if I carry an umbrella on a hot sunny day), I reluctantly braved the sun and i think the frequency of me complaining about the weather has declined. hehe..

The weather here is making sick! It seems like the sun is right out there to get me! I could just feel my cheeks burning! And the weather is very dry too. Strange how it was actually quite cold yesterday and very windy.

anyhow, We went up to Maine yesterday and enjoyed some of the best lobsters and clam chowders!! yumyum!! Lobsters are like the thing you gotta try when you're up here in New England! Fresh and yummy lobsters! Then, we drove the nearby beach by the Atlantic Ocean.. Not that the best beaches, more rocks (some pretty rocks too!) than sand and I found it weird how they don't allow dogs in the beaches! hmm...

As dusk approached, we drove back to Boston, to catch the fireworks that lasted for 24 minutes as part of the July 4th celebration. Some of the best fireworks I have seen too! In a myriad of shapes and colors.. I particularly liked the pink heart-shaped ones and the smiley-faced ones. Never get to see those in Singapore. So some of the roads were closed by the time we went downtown and we were not that sure of the best viewing place. Drivers parked their cars as they wished, causing major congestions on the streets. Fortunately, after driving round for alomst half an hour, we found a place to park the car, got out, climbed over the railings to the freeway overlooking the Charles River (the freeway was closed...so no cars) and braved the chilly windy night to watch the spectacular fireworks! And we were right on time! got there just as it started! :)

After all that cold stone's, ben and jerry's and other yummy food, I finally gained enough motivation to drag my bum out of the house and go to gym with my brother and elaine. phew! Amazingly, I felt good after that! :) It feels good to see how much calories are burned from the screen on the elliptical! All the sweat!! And.. I do like exercising indoors, away from the bad bad sun! Which probably explains why I enjoy fencing and not really looking forward to PE lessons. hehheh..

I miss my fencing saber and my drums. :(

hey all!

how's everyone's summer been?

I am getting somewhat annoyed at the unpredictability (is there such a word? haha) of the New England weather. I looked out of the window and it shows a what looks like a hot sunny weather. So I dressed in my tank top and sandals to go out. After all that deliberation of what-shall-i-wear today, I stepped out of the house and yes, it's actually freezing out there! So gotta go back in and change into something else! ggrr.. and how unreliable the weather forecasts are! haha.. So many times, it predicted that it'd rain, but turned out it didn't! haha. Other times, it looks kinda cloudy, but it actually isn't! OR.. several times, it looks and was really hot so i wore my tank tops and sandals and was walking along Newbury Street. I didnt think it was necessary to bring my jacket along since it was really scorching hot! Then... a gust of wind and I was freezing! I shivered and blamed at my stupidity for not taking my jacket along..argh!

Anyhow, but today was hot! and sunny!!! bleargh! Went to some interesting places today, very different from the Newbury and Prudential Center which we frequent most of the time. First up, went to Berklee College of Music to look at the music bookstores.. interesting stuff they have there.. Then, wanted to go to another music store cos mum was looking for some stuff which the store at Berklee didn't have. But we lost our way. Wanted to go to Isabella Museum but was closed :( ... btw, admissions is free for anyone named "Isabella".. how unfair! Then, chanced upon this huge statue of a hippo in front of a building. We went in thinking it was some museum and turned out to School of Museum of Fine Arts! Interesting place. I didn't know they even had a school specialising in museum stuff. But it was nice. Saw some of the exhibits. Too bad couldnt take pictures. The exhibits we saw were like made of recycled stuff. Some looked really easy and I'd be thinking... "i could have done that too!" There was one exhibit which just had 3 cream-colored paper stuck on the wall, and on the papers were just lines made from the white out tape! It was like abstract but easy-looking patterns on the paper.. not drawn from some spiffy paint, but from white out tape! what in the world..... And it was done by some student who had his DIPLOMA in some artsy major. Mannn...

After that, headed down to Caffe Vittoria in Little Italy where we had yummy Ice Mocha and cakes and ice cream!! Fattening stuff again..
and we headed back..

yummy!! I am lovin' it! Apple Pie A La Cold Stone!! I shall just hit the gym when I get back to Singapore. How can you resist such good stuff?? Fortunately, these irresistable stuff are not available within walking distant from where I live. :)

hey y'all!

how's everyone's summer going so far? hmm.. I am so bad at this blogging thing. haha

anyhows, left singapore the day after the last day of school. The flight to ny via frakfurt was ok. The food was impressively good! and they had green tea throughout the flight which was good! I think I must have gained a lot of weight just at the airplane. Imagine feasting on a whole lot of ice-cream and yummy cakes, puddings and muesli stuff plus the main courses with no exercise! All I did for almost 24hours up in the air was sleep, watch movies and read.. and walked to the restroom every 8 hours to brush my teeth. No exercise! argh! I was so full when we finally reached our destination.

Too bad we couldn't get the flight tickets to boston, so my brother had to drive all the way to pick us up from JFK. For that, we ended up waiting in the airport for 5 hours cos he left the house late and apparently got lost on the way. Then, since we were already in NYC and my brother was hungry, so ended up having another meal at soho. We had Korean and I must say it's best I have ever had! :D Walked around the soho area a bit and then the shops were starting to close. Then, come another fat-gaining session! haha.. My brother drove us up to Providence, Rhode Island where we had some yummy cakes at this place called "Pastiche" or something like that! It was really very yummy! What sets it different from the other cake shops was that the cakes and tarts are not overly sweet and the fruits are really fresh too! But cakes... still very fattening. yup, after all that, I was so tired and we finally drove back to Massachusetts.

There goes my first day here in the U.S. I so need to go to the gym! arghh!!!

As the title suggests, yes! Banquet is tomorrow!!! I can't wait!! muaahahha... can't wait to watch Star Wars after that too. Should be fun, hanging out in the middle of the night. Oh wells.. let's hope I can wake up on time on Sunday morning for Mission Ministry Prayer meeting at church. bleargh. oh wells.. gotta sleep early tonight.. get rid of those nasty eyebags!!!

hullo hullo!! How's everyone doing?

It is kind of weird how the mission trip which i went with my church to Pulau Lingka only lasted for 3 days, but the preparations take longer than that. Like counting the money left and doing a report... writing the events that happened and submitting it to the church's monthly newsletter, and editing the videos. oh wells..

anyhow, we have about 5 weeks of school left :D I can't wait to go to the US in summer! Although we will only be there for about a month. 5 weeks left... which means finals is coming and SAT and.... *takes a deep breath* studying time. :(

And I am starting to not like Chemistry. :( It's not that I am not doing well in that class, but just the contents of the subject that bores me to sleep (sometimes). gahhh!!

SIGH. gtg

My 3 days spent at Pulau Lingka was fruitful. It was an eye-opener, and I am glad I made the choice to go. I had a great time there and.. I wanna go back!!!

So on Friday after 6th period, I left school and headed to Harborfront to meet with the rest of the team. After a light meal at MacDonald's while waiting for the rest to arrive, we headed up to the check-in place. We were the second group to go, since most of us are students. The first group, made up of mostly from the Women's Fellowship (housewives and mums) and the Maria-Martha Fellowship (maids and domestic workers) left at 8am.So anyway, we had a slight miscommunication and left one hour later than scheduled. Some people from our church saw us off and prayed for us before we left. Since it was a regular schoolday for all of us, we dozed off in the ferry to Batam.

After reaching Batam, Winny's (one of our team members) Dad picked us up (their family stays in Batam) and drove us to Sagulung, about 20 mins drive. There's a small jetty at Sagulung and once we reached, one of the elders from the church in Lingka was already there to pick us up with his small motor boat to bring us to Pulau Lingka. Getting down to the boat from the jetty was kind of tricky, since the steps were quite far from one another and we had to transport our bags into the boat too. We made to the boat anyhow and made our way to Lingka. Halfway, we stopped at another island to pick up another church elder. Then, it was all the way to Lingka! The journey on the motor boat was about 30 mins and by the time, the sky was getting dark, so we could barely see any nice scenery. But it was also nice since the sky was filled up with twinkling stars and we hardly get to see those here in Singapore. So we passed several islands with no signs of civilization. The boat ride was scary at some point, when he made a sharp turn and it felt like the boat was going to capsize, but thank God, it didn't. I decided to sit at the unsheltered place to see the stars in the sky and it turned out, the sea water was splashing into the boat. The three of us who sat at the unsheltered place were drenched and I think we "drank" a whole lot of salty sea water. Finally, we saw dim lights in the distance and before I even realised, we were already in Pulau Lingka!

Upon reaching, the kids excitedly welcomed us and did not hesistate to help us with our bags. The sky was already dark and there were no street lamps anywhere, we all relied on our torchlights and getting off the boat was tricky. We had to climb to the jetty to get to the island. Climbing up from the boat was not easy. The steps were far from one another and we had to literally crawl up. It was pretty late when we finally settled down. We gathered at the Pastor's house there and basically briefed on our activities the next day. We were also assigned to which family's house we were staying with. Anyhow, I was in the same house as Winny and we were realized the family whom we are staying with stays at the other end of the island! It was already dark and we didn't know exactly which way to go, so the church elder who picked us up from Sagulung sent us to our house at the other side of the island by his motor boat.

We were greeted with the family when we reached there who actually sacrificed their sleep. So we took a shower and initially got a rude shock when they pointed out the bathroom. the potty was right to the sea. and there were no door, just a cloth draped over a bamboo stick, which only covered to slightly above our chest. Anyhow, I survived that... good experience. We were limited to a pail of water to shower each time. Not too bad, considering that the pail was bigger than what I imagined. After all the cleaning up, we led devotions with the family and slept. We slept on our sleeping bags. No fans...don't even talk about air-cons! It was so HOT! I was perspiring all over! And we couldn't sleep in the middle of the night when the wild dogs and cats decide to come into the house and were fighting right at our foot! When morning finally came, I was freezing! The waves were big and it was so windy. I was awaken when the house shook a bit, guess it was due to the waves. It was drizzling! So we showered in the rain (they didn't have shelter in the bathroom). Then made our way across the forested route to where we all meet--at the pastor's house. The ground was wet and I slipped several times. With bags and books to carry, plus the narrow path, I can't balance with my arms or hold onto something.

After briefing, our acitivties began. It started with the cooking lesson and competition. The purpose was to introduce and encourage the women to practice hygiene while cooking and of course, to fellowship. The food was so yummy! I got to try sea turtle meat, which was delicious. oh wells.. what do ya expect? Indo food rocks!! :) yup... and had other activities. I was in charge of the kids talent time. My group got second!!! :D then, we had few other activities which I wasn't in charge of... so three of us went out rowing with one of the kids. The kids there actually learned rowing as young as 5 or 6 years old. And we? freaking out when the boat shaked a little! tsk tsk... btu it was fun. We went out to the middle of the sea between 2 islands and worshipped God! Nice singing in the open space. When evening came, we went back and it was the Bible games, which I was emcee-ing (I was quite nervous about that!), turned out better than I expected. Well.. have faith in Him! The purpose was to bring the families together, and to increase their Biblical knowledge. It was a long day and after yet another yummy-licious dinner, we had debrief. Then, time to go home! We had to make our way back by foot ourselves...through the forested route in the dark! Winny and I freaked out and seeing that we girls, our leader, Dimas, decided to send us back. It was not a fun experience walking in the dark, though we used torchlights. Sometimes, there are branches in front of us and made us tripped, or slippery rocks. Worst was still the sound of dogs barking and cats purring somewhere in the dark and you can't see them. Nevertheless, we made it safely back home.

Third day-- time to go home! :( After the church service, my team had sponsored for a doctor to come from Batam to do a health check-up for the Lingka people. I was in charge of administration. Basically handed out their health cards. then, had our last lunch there and while waiting for some people to pack and all, some of us and the kids went out to the jetty. Felt nice to have wind in our hair and we were lying down there and I almost fell asleep! The weather was so nice! Unlike here in Singapore, where the wind is blocked by the numerous tall buildings. The guys went swimming and I was so jealous! I so wanted to jump into the sea and swim but too bad, didn't have extra clothes and didn't bring swimsuit. Anyhow, the guys came back up with numerous cuts on their bodies, supposedly from the wooden stilts that they put up used for fishing and the rocks somewhere. They got their cuts treated and the kids there found it hilarious I guess. Getting those kinda cuts were apparently the norm for them and they hardly bade an eyelid on them. After bidding farewell, we took the motor boat and went back to Saggulung. It was raining and we were all drenched by the time we reached. Went to Batam. After checking in.. shopping time! We came to the conclusion that we should have more bonding time and decided to take the last ferry back to Singapore, caring less about school and work the next day. Took the ferry and I finally reached home at 2am.

Overall, it was a fun experience and it made me more appreciative of my living conditions. I got to know my church friends better too and in fact, we were planning on going back just for a visit over the break in June! :) I miss Pulau Lingka and the people. I miss the carefree life. I can't imagine I was in the middle of the sea in a boat during a school weekend. No homework, tests... :) I can't wait to go there again!! :D