Irate Dawn.

Glad I've survived this week :) Going for my exam in about 1 plus hrs time and I'll be free! Free to enjoy my Spring Break until Thurs. Lotsa stuff to clear after I'm back, can't bum around watching movies until the break ends. Will be heading to Miami, Fort Lauderdale tomorrow! Whee! It's gonna be a 13 hr drive from here to there. Woah. And I'm still not sure who I'm riding with. Hmmm... I'll get my ride eventually.

I was pretty irate with my friends. It's the whole thing about being nice and how people oughta know their limits. And not to do everything that they're told to do without thinking.

Murphy's Law

Feel as though everything that can go wrong has went wrong on me. In case you don't know, I lost 800 USD thanks to the robbing ATM. It'll take 45 days for the money to be returned to my account? Comforted by friends who showed concern though. Be it prayers, offers to lend me money ...
I don't know why eversince then, my mood has been spiraling downwards. Starting to miss home. I haven't talked to my parents for days because I haven't been able to call them when they're awake. I must talk to my parents soon and sleep more.

A sty in my eye.

I hate getting sty in my eye. Woke up on Sun morning with one, the night b4 I slept my eye already felt prickly. Now it feels painful, swollen and itchy. Visited the Doctor and its weird that he only gave me oral medication, nothing to clean my eyes with. So tempted to buy eye wash lotion.. But I'm too lazy to walk to the supermarket so far away... Stys are a pain.
Having D gps tonight and I steamed some baos for the girls to try. My tau sar bao tastes so different from the one in Sg lah. For a start the tau sar seems different. And the baos are flat. Oh well. I miss good baos especially the one from the pau shop in Northpoint.
The medication makes me very sleepy... Feel asleep in both lectures I attended today :( Had a pop quiz after one of the lectures and well.. I hope I do well. Sigh.
Cannot-scratch-my-eye no matter how itchy it is.. Arrrrgggh.

College Tour.

Hmm I don't have pics to post this weekend. Haha. Please don't kill me. I just felt weird taking out my cam this weekend. Because I didn't exactly go sight-seeing. Left for Athens and went to Athens, the college town of University of Georgia, Athens. Whereby more than half of the inhabitants of the town are college kids and clubs and pubs fill 4 Streets of Downtown. Reminds me of the club that Buffy the Vampire Slayer goes to. lol.
Got invited to an interesting event held at UGA which is not meant for GT students. But, there were no hiccups though, fitted perfectly into the college crowd without suspicion. This event has free food, free movies and free custom-made souvenirs :) I got some souvenirs which was really cool :) Anne was so sweet to give me her wristband so that I could get the goodies too.
Stayed over at their place after that and the 5 of us played cards till wee hrs in the morning. Learnt how to play Vietnamese version of Dai Dee. Hehe. Anyone wanna learn? Actually slept at 5 this morning!! And woke up at 9 plus. Just reached back at about 7pm-ish. Coz after lunch we headed to Emory another university in Atlanta to watch Wen Eu's friend perform in a Christian drama thingy. Although there were technical errors and stuff, they performed really well. I can never not be amazed by what Jesus has done for us. He came down to die in our place. I so don't deserve Him dying for me. I want to love Him more.
Without love I will only be a resounding gong. Hollow and empty, no substance at all. I pray that He will teach me how to love others unconditionally. Coz deeds without love mean nothing. Zilch.

Weekends are so precious...

Another weekend rolling round again :D Oh well. Tests and homework aside, I've been applying for more internships. The early bird catches the worm you see? And I really want to practice what I have learnt and get paid for it at the same time.
This weekend I'll be heading for Athens, a college town an hr away from Atlanta. While the rest, except for one other friend, will be heading for Smoky Mountains. I am too broke to go to Smoky Mountains. Must save money for end of sem break. Sheesh. According to my guidebook, it seems worth visiting, since I'm a mere hr away. It's really nice of Wen Eu to bring me there and we'll be putting up at his friend's place. Which makes me feel kinda bad to trouble 2 people. Oh well... Must start thinking of ways I can say thanks to Wen Eu and his friend. What should I do? Hmmm... ... ....

About Spring Break, my friends' reactions were rather neutral. No worries then.

I kinda enjoy this solitude. I don't mind being alone, not that I mind company either. But, I'm fine alone. Helps to me to hear God better. School has been hectic, I just thank God for being here with me. There are so many occasions that He has saved me from hiccups. Well, I believe He brought me here for a purpose and I don't want to disappoint Him. Giving it my best shot be it school, being an encouragement, a testimony... blah blah blah.

Last weekend's pics of Dim Sum @ Chinatown and Georgia Aquarium
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=596&l=f90fe&id=227800168

This is going to be exciting!

I've just made a decision that will shock my Sg friends. I have paid in full 175USD for my Spring Break trip to Miami with the crusaders. It wasn't a decision made on impulse. I prayed about it. I simply don't feel the draw towards Disneyland as much as I use to. Although I've wanted to visit it since I was 3, when Dad bought me Mickey Mouse from Cali. Disneyland, themeparks, meaningless sightseeing VS serving God in a different capacity, albeit not much sightseeing. Which would you choose? My rationale is that God will bless me so much more than I can ever anticipate. I can do the sightseeing after the semester ends. And somehow doing something for God sounds much more exciting than going to fantasyland. I like my fellow exchange buddies, but I feel like breaking away from them sometimes. I know my role among them and I feel I need to recharge. I can't keep being salty when I feel like I'm running out of flavour sometimes. It's not easy to encourage people to go to church and continuously live life the way Jesus would be pleased with. It's bloody difficult.
I'm breaking away. I'm spending one week with a bunch of people who are almost strangers. And I abandon my Spring Break in Your hands. Pray that God will use me and the rest of the crusaders greatly.

Valentine's Day and Chinese New Year

They do not have holidays for Chinese New Year over here. How sad. They don't know what they're missing out on. And thanks to them I've got no hols either. Anyway school will not close down even if there's a snowstorm. Because it will cost them millions to close down for just one day. That's GT for you.

Guess what are the beads for?

These beads are from Mardi Gras, my friends brought them back for me when they went for their weekend trip to New Orleans. These beads are thrown from the floats to the crowd below and according to my friends they threw em real hard! Ow. What are the beads for? Erm.. Alright. If you want someone to show u some any part of their body, you gotta tell them the part you wanna see and if the person flashes you have to throw em the beads. Sleazy eh?

Spent Chinese New Year cooking most of the time and eating. Lol. My greatest achievement is making Yu Sheng from the scratch. Plum sauce and all. With the help of my friends of course. Sad to say, I didn't take any photos during the process.

Vday was just busy. Stayed in school till 7.30pm that day working on a project. But at 4pm my friends came over pass me a flower. Awww. So sweeet.

More photos click here :)

Another roadtrip, another hole in my pocket.

Went to Savannah over the weekend and I luuurve the place!!!! Wish I could make it my permanent residence, weeeell kind of. Lots of rustic charm.
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=547&l=0d981&id=227800168



Dear Jesus, this Valentine's Day, my heart belongs to You. And I want it to be so every Vday! Yay

A typical day...

Overslept for the 3rd time this week. Overslept everyday except for MOnday... Arrgh what's wrong with me? Actually, I know what's wrong. Can't do anything about it, so can only force myself to get out of bed. Headed to school for the HRM exam... It'll be fine. I think. I wrote as much as I could. Hands ached after that.
Followed by lunch and studying for the quiz for the next day. I swear I have quizzes like everyday!!! Gdness. God save me. Let it snow or ice the tutors in or something, I need a break already. Haha.
Headed back home after school and started on my fried snickers bars immediately. I didn't take any photos, coz they simply looked ugly. I don't know why the batter refuses to stay on the chocolate! Why? I don't get it either. Is it the fat-free milk, or is it the flour? Arrrgh I don't know. I'll just have to finish frying all the bars with the remaining batter. Yep, took my ugly snicker bars over to Wen Eu's place for dinner and my B&J ice cream. Weeell, at least the bars tasted good. They could have tasted better.. I sooo miss Fried MArs Bars.. We had curry bee hoon. Haha. Abit bland because the curry was frozen, but it was alright, since I wasn't feeling all that well anyway. Sick food. Haha.
Went to watch the short movies produced by GT students in school after dinner, it was fun watching the short clips. Except that I couldn't get some of them. The winning film Fanya Kaplan was really piang piang ( superb!), about the attempted assasination of Lenin. They spoke Russian! Impressed and their filming skills really good. The funniest film went to lecture crashers. 2 students who crash lectures and do outrageous stuff like ordering pizza in the middle of lecture?! And other crazier stuff. Nuff said.
I'm back in my room mugging for my quiz tomorrow. *yawn*

Snowboarding, exams and being in my own world.

Went snowboarding in the moutains last weekend and was it thrilling fun! Though I ended up on my butt half the time, I'm happy to say that I have kinda gotten the hang of it. Chance of lifetime. Why doesn't singapore SNOW??! People in the tropics are seriously missing out alot of fun.

Scary ski lift behind Bev and me.
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=485&l=6899d&id=227800168
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=486&l=791bd&id=227800168

Agnes went snowball-throwing-happy and ended up the target of all the people she threw snowballs at. Lol. It was good, clean, wet fun. Haha.
Wanted to go to New Orleans this coming weekend, but I thought I should just give it a miss due to my tight budget. Annnd.. I'm wondering if it's good for me to go there at all. I'm not going there to paartie, but to check out the voodoo hoodoo cemetries and haunted houses. Yea, sounds wrong right? Yep, guess I shouldn't test God. Didn't feel any peace about going, although I really wanted to go. But, not anymore I guess.

Going to watch Swan Lake this coming Friday at the Fox theatre and the tics are cheap, only 10 bucks :) But, I think I'll probably spend on food again. Sigh. HAte the exchange rate it's not working to my advantage.

2 tests this week! No more updates until I've got more time.

I'm back!

Heh. Disappeared for a week. Oh well as promised I am posting more pics of our pancake session and whatever else was snapped. The pancakes tasted interesting. Yes. I can only describe it as interesting, the batter was off. Yea. :s

Click below for photos:
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=468&l=322b6&id=227800168

I am tired. tired tired tired. Hate the rumours going around. Annoying.

School is insane...

Weekends are for playing and weekdays are for mugging. NOT partying. Feel that I've been having too many dinner parties. Didn't get much work done. Actually just returned from 1 dinner party... What constitutes a dinner party? Homecooked food and 10 other people. Yup. I swear I am growing fat!!

I have 3 quizzes next week and 2 assignments remaining and it seems like I'm going to be out for the whole weekend. Stress. Life in GT doesn't allow you to slack like in NTU. Last minute cramming in NTU is the norm, but GT and the frequent quizzes won't allow you to do so. SO much for the AMerican system, they're aren't such slackers after all. Sad. I wanna play...
I am stressed on an exchange programme?! WHat's this man...

Making pancakes from the mix or from the scratch on Sat morning for breakfast. Will take some pictures of the whole chaotic process I guess. Haha.

Wild Weekend.

I drove this weekend. It's an achievement that I could drive a car around an empty parking lot without crashing into anything and not scaring the passengers in the car. I'll never forget Dylan screaming while driving car... Hahahaha. Super scary. Yay. At least I know the basics.


Went to stone mountain and premier shopping outlets for cheap stuff and good shopping over the weekend. No more playing. Got lots to do. So here are my photos. Enjoy!


Tim and his daughters.

What's that?

Click below for more photos!

http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=432&l=eb423&id=227800168



http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=440&l=5fdac&id=227800168

1st week as GT student.

Everything is falling to apart. The sink in my apartment was choked, the flush is funny and the fridge broke down and that's just at "home". Went to print stuff in school to discover that my account is not properly connected yesterday and today there was a network error. In total, I have wasted many hours trying to solve these glitches. I used to getting glitches, but frankly I am very ANNOYED.

*breath*

My apartmentmates are fine. 3 Singaporeans and 1 american. The Singaporeans dominate! And... A bunch of us always head down to my place for dinner. Feel quite bad for our American apartment mate actually. But, we're nice people, I always make sure that the kitchen stays clean. Heard horror stories from the guys though... About living-in girlfriends. Americans live up to their ideals about liberalism. They are really liberal.Sharing the same bathroom? Too liberal. Eew. Alright I am here for immersion, so culture shock is expected.

Anyway, more photos.

http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=430&l=ba654&id=227800168

Settling down

I've disappeared for close to a week eversince I boarded the plane headed for Atlanta. Finally, I got internet access in my room. For the first few days the apartment wasn't ready and we had to stay in the youth hostel. 10 people shared 1 room. It is an experience that I hope I won't get to try again. Visited a few interesting places here for the past few days, school starts next week.

Coca Cola and Krispy Kreme. Getting fat.

http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=409&l=ec762&id=227800168

http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=410&l=498ac&id=227800168

In case you wonder who I'm with, I'm with 24 other people from NTU and 2 from NUS. Number of people attending the same lectures varies from module to module. That's not important though. Thank God that I have a some people to cook with and hang out with aside from lessons. However, they are all Singaporeans for now. Hope to know some locals here.

Eversince I stepped out of the house, I haven't had enough rest. I really hope to get some sleep now and go to church on Sunday. Miss spending more time with God, it's even more difficult to spend time with Him now as there are so many things to do, but I pray that God will give me the time and energy to enter into His presence. I need Him so much.

Pack, pack, pack.. Ack..

My backpack and suitcase has NO more space. Goodness. How can there be NO space? I have only packed rather little things. Oh no. Must figure a way out. It's 4.39am and I'm still packing. Better get used to this.

Took my own sweet time to check the results today. Didn't feel like checking it because I screwed up my papers. But. God never fails to amaze. The results I saw was quite unbelievable considering that 30 plus marks were deducted after every post-mortem of the exam paper done by comparing against the notes. I am in awe God. I thought I did get Cs, but the lowest grade was B. I'm no straight A student, if I were, it'll be unfair to those who started mugging 2-3 weeks before the exams. I started really late this sem, to the point that I gave up on the later papers, cramming only the day before. So, I give a BIG thank you to God above, coz this sem's results are especially important to me as they make up my whole yr's grades. Grades from the exchange are not counted. So actually, it's pointless to score As in Georgia. Meaning that I can slack. Muahahaha.

Yea right. Think God will be happy if I slack? Definitely not. I will continue to work hard, but maybe He has other stuff for me to work on, not so much on the grade grinding? What matters is putting God first. The results are a good testimony. Though honestly, I haven't been putting God first as much as I'd like.

I am not leaving Yishun today, unless I really have to. Went out with some people for the past 2 days. Guess I'm more or less ready to leave, said my farewells. Please DON'T watch Borat. Yucck.. It's disappointing in my opinion, didn't laugh very much. There's a good reason why it is R21. I don't think I'm suited to watch R21 shows. Traumatised. Errrk.

Last day in Singapore. Sleepless in Singapore. Starring: Dawn and her faithful laptop (Hopefully it remains faithful in US and doesn't quit on Dawn)

Leaving again.

I'm back from Taiwan! Thought I did blog a long post about Taiwan, but I don't have the time nor energy to do it. Maybe next time when I have more time on my hands. For now, I feel like blogging about my impending departure to US and here are the photos from Taiwan! I love that place man, love to go there in June after coming back from US. Haha. Managed to do the captions for some photos.

http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=383&l=b03ce&id=227800168
http://ntu.facebook.com/album.php?aid=382&l=dd45d&id=227800168

I'm starting to miss people even though I haven't left. It's kinda difficult to say goodbye. So, I haven't told some people that I'm leaving, lest they ask me too many questions. In case you I failed to tell you, I'm leaving coming Sat.

Been wondering what has God called me to do there, if I have been walking in His will and if going for this exchange is a mistake, becoz I must admit that at times things don't seem right. However, in general things are going well. I'm pretty hyped up about going, but I wonder if I'll get homesick and lost. Pray that He will give me the courage and to see things from His perspective. I'm going there to grow. Heh. Not that I won't grow in Singapore and Daniel had said at least twice that I'll be missing out on what's going to happen in Secell. And since I made my choice, I'll go and make the most out of it and bless the people.

I'll be attaching myself to a Jewish prof and he's been really nice to correspond with me via email even before I'm there. Staying with 2 americans and a fellow ntu mate in the same apartment and I just learnt how to cook porridge today! Bought sambal sauce to marinate fish also. Yummmmy.....

I just hope to meet as many people as I can before leaving. Time is running out... And I am determined to leave light-hearted, not in tears.

Taiwan!

Leaving for Taiwan today. It's gonna be 4 days straight of pigging out and shopping! Whee!! Fun, fun ,fun :D

Absent.

I'm at a loss of what to do because there just too many things to be done. I really have no idea where to start. Alright, I shall attempt to cook my first dish tomorrow. Ho hum, flip through the cook book and see what I conjure up from the frying pan. Hopefully dad and I will live through lunch that I'm so determined to prepare tomorrow.

Went to Glady's birthday party, she's leaving for Murdock next year to become a vet! I'm happy for her though, her dreams are coming true :) Half of my JC classmates turned up, mostly guys though. It's been 2 years since I last saw some of them and they haven't seem to have changed at all, especially the guys. Lol. Still the same old same old. Can't believe it's been this long since we've graduated from college.
I'm getting increasingly tired as the days pass. Wonder if things will get better after youth camp?

It's wonderful to spend the day home tomorrow. Help me to see things the way you want me to see them God.

Breath. A little.

Muahahaha. The exams are finally O-V-E-R. Though I must say the last paper was quite disappointing. My fault this time, I couldn't reformat my brain anymore. Yes. I felt like a storage device during the exams. Erase and store, erase and store. Finally. My brain is blissfully empty.

I feel like a changed person after every sem. Maybe that's uni life or life in general when you are 20 and above. Or perhaps this is the time of your life when the most drastic changes take place. You become the care-giver instead of being cared for, I can foresee my future role and I'm already slowly sinking into it. The difficulty level is only going to go up and up and up.

Lots of things to be done, the holidays only bring about another kind of flurry. Especially during the Dec holidays.Youth camp. Friends. Shopping. Christmas. Taiwan. Impending departure. Farewells.

No time to breathe. Wish I could spend one idyllic day doing absolutely nothing. Those days are gone. Ha. So many things I want to do. Scrapping, baking ginger snaps, vivocity and more... Ok. Fine I still haven't gotten within 10 feet of that place. But I will.