Happy Thanksgiving from Singapore

I know it's a little bit belated, but happy thanksgiving to you all in the States! I really miss my American thanksgiving: thanksgiving day breakfast with my church family, hosting my best friend Ei for thanksgiving dinner at our home, staying up for black Friday shopping, decorating the house for Christmas, and heading to perform Balinese dances for the annual Bali to Bala opening night. I didn't get to do the traditional thanksgiving meal here since 1) I don't have access to a kitchen, 2) Restaurant thanksgiving meals are pricey, 3) When I found out supermarkets were catering it, it was too late to place the order for thanksgiving day. Believe it or not, turkey dinner here is more of a Christmas fare so this time around they have just started providing the service. Despite of the absence of  thanksgiving meal, my heart was so grateful for all these places, faces, and experiences that God has blessed me with. They were more amazing beyond I previously imagined. I'm also thankful for whatever God has in store for me next.

One and a half week left for me in Singapore. Everyone has been busy preparing for the finals. I only have 2 exams,which are on the 29th and the 5th. So much time to study that I've became kind of scared that I'll forget things I'm reading up now comes the real exams. This is where lecture videos come in handy. I've been putting it on as I do my chores and start on consolidating/throwing my stuffs away. On the brighter note, I'm really looking forward to spending a month in Indonesia and more importantly going back to the States. So here's what my life looks like post-exam:

• Dec 6th: Flying to Jakarta in the PM
• Dec 7th-10th: Being tourist in Jakarta with Diana, an exchange friend I've been travelling with
• Dec 11th-13rd: Bali with my mom
• Dec 13rd-20th: Mostly Jakarta, but I might drop a visit to Bandung as my sister ends her semester and coming home
• Dec 21st-29th: North Sumatra to visit grandmother, relatives, and some times of family vaca

Breaking My Singapore Bubble

America, it is.

This past week I've been thinking of things that are going on back there a lot. It all started with the Hurricane Sandy hitting the Mid-Atlantic. Even though I was spoiled by Singapore's 90 degree days during that disaster, I was with you folks. I kept a close eye on the news while praying for your safety. I missed the historical Drexel closure and worked intensively on term projects and papers instead, boo! (I did celebrate Halloween with my neighbors, though. Eastern State Penitentiary should start hiring them; they did an awesome job scaring people off and turning TV lounges into haunted houses).

Election was another thing. You'd never know how much the international community is watching your election from here, America. Students from all over the world gathered at our Global Lounge nervously watching the votes being counted: many celebrated at the end, while few were disappointed. I had a mixed feeling towards the whole thing. However, a key take away is that no matter who the president is, God is still in His throne and Christ reigns over all. I had never felt such overwhelming gratefulness that my citizenship is not of this world, but is in heaven ruled by my Savior Jesus Christ.

Lastly, I have only one month left in Singapore and two months in Asia. It's time to register for courses to fulfill my degree requirements. I'm already set on staying full-time until graduation since the senior capstone course that I needed was closed for Winter term already; making it 2 courses that I really need for graduation to be postponed to Spring. I've also started  to look through the application for the year-long ministry internship which was quite lengthy. God has definitely been making me realize more than ever of my great insufficiency apart from Him.

This Singapore comfort bubble needs to be broken. Time for some real stuffs  to kick in.

Crossing Out 2 Items in 1 Shot

This past weekend has just been crazily amazing! I had never thought I would crossed out 2 items of my Singapore bucket list in one weekend while managing to fit dim sum meals in between. So the first item of business was the Marina Bay Sands infinity pool. Thanks to Mike for initiating the room booking, we managed to get 16 people to come over, chip in for the room, and just chill on a Friday evening by the infinity pool. It was quite an experience sneaking that many people to both the room and the pool, hiding from the security people, and asking for extra key cards "just for the pool". What a night!

I was set the next day for a dim sum brunch over at Si Chuan Dou Hua restaurant with some folks from NTU Deli Aprecio. It was a really good and legit dim sum experience.

At first, I was contemplating whether or not to join Zhinwei and Joey (both are involved with NTU Cru) visiting Universal Studios Singapore. Yet I soon remembered that the student discount of 20% was about to end and in heartbeat, I headed to Sentosa Island to join them. It was such a small park, yet I really enjoyed the rides and of course the awesome fellowship with these bros.

Coming out of the park, we had a dim sum dinner at Din Tai Fung. We were quite hungry, let me just put it that way.

Rain and thunderstorm soon started, and we decided to just stay in and chat over the free-flow hot tea. The topics, mostly about America, were quite wide in variety such as sport teams, politics, outdoor activities, travels, but mostly it all came back to food. I had to say it was just a really great day of fun, bonding, and getting to know them better.

Back from Discovery Weekend

Another week of Singapore awesomeness was just behind me. It's been raining every single day, but today the sun was shining so brightly. A call to do laundry for me haha :D Anyhow, class assignments and readings have started to pick up their dynamics as groups are being formed for our various term projects. Praise the Lord that I got into that one Friday morning class that I thought I wouldn't get. I know the timing sucks, but I need it to graduate. I also joined another club on campus called Deli Aprecio. We had our first meeting this past week, and I'm excited for the activities planned for this club. Woaa, so busy lah. And in the midst of all, I was able to fit a weekday lunch with Giang, a fellow Dragon ending her co-op abroad with Scoot. I visited her during her lunch at Changi and we went for some Japanese food. She's flying back to US in a week or so, and as for now I just don't wanna imagine myself doing the same yet. Send my regards to Broad St., Giang!

A backpacking trip for recess week is being planned as well. I would spend 10 days in Southeast Asia with my girls Diana and Rensy. The original plan was to do Vietnam-Cambodia-Thailand, yet due to safety reasons we've just decided to call Cambodia off and spend more time exploring the other 2 instead. Definitely exciting stuff!

By the way, I've just came back from an overnight Discovery Weekend organized by the lovely campus staffs here at Singapore Cru for college seniors. I heard some cool testimonies as well as talks that were intended to equip all of us to discern God's calling for our lives after graduation. Something that God has put in my heart since last year's Radiate conference was to dedicate a year post my graduation to intern with GAiN. Somehow, I dismissed that call and insisted that it wasn't for me until a couple weeks before I left for Singapore. I felt like God was really pressing it hard on my heart during those times until I couldn't stop thinking about it and finally fell on my knees. After some period of struggles in prayer, I finally forwarded the long-abandoned email from a GAiN staff I met through Radiate to another person in-charge of the interns. I guess we'll wait and see how God's plan for me in this unfolds as we pray for His will to be revealed in my life.

Let the Countdown Stop...

...and the journey begin!

The long-awaited moment finally came. After church service and fellowship hour were over last Sunday, I went home for a quick bite, then caught my shuttle ride to JFK. New York traffic was bad. It literally took 4 hours to get there. To add to the hassle, my baggage went over 3 kgs of the allowance. Thankfully, the check-in person was okay with it.

So those shenanigans were minuscule compared to my flight experience. The best part? My seat! It was the best seat I've ever had flying with SQ. Window view next to the emergency door, which I would consider a perfect combo. To add into this combo, I sat and got acquainted with another Singapore-US exchange student during the flight. Hailing from his hometown in AZ, home college in GA, and an internship in NY, Scott is spending this semester at Singapore Management University. It was nice to chat with another person who is going through a similar adventure.

As we boarded, the sky was pretty clear. But soon enough, thunderstorms came and forced a 40-minute delay. We still landed in Frankfurt close to being on-time, though. Not surprisingly, my flight experience with SQ was very pleasant. This time around, it didn't feel like the 20-something hour journey was long at all. They served really good food.

I also had the chance to catch up on "The Lucky One", "Five Year Engagement", "Hunger Games", "Comme Un Chef", "The Soul of Bread", "The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel", and 2 episodes of "The Office".

We landed in Singapore around 6:35 AM. It was still very dark. Mr.Yeo, the flight attendant, said that I should expect that every single day. The immigration, baggage claim, and custom went fairly quick and smooth, thank God. Scott and I eventually separated as he headed to Sleepy Sam's downtown, and I headed to NTU in the West.

Last Day of Co-Op

Time to say sayonara to my wonderful 4-month working experience at PJM.

At first, I felt indifferent about being paired with this position. However, I grew to love this workplace after just a couple weeks. There were so many things to learn, and it was just so encouraging to see full time employees here enjoy what they’re doing. Saying goodbye to the lovely workplace and people in my department now is kinda sad. They’ve been so supportive and patient in helping me develop professionally. Btw, thanks to them for taking me out to lunch today at Primo’s. Last Philly hoagie until 2013 couldn’t be better.

Clearing up my desk, I realized that work post the cubicle life has gotten better exponentially. For those who don’t know, I moved to a room with 3 other System Planning co-ops for a couple months now. Never crossed my mind about all of us getting along hilariously well, until the co-op team building luncheon where the HR told us to get to know our team. “But we’ve gotten to know each other all too well that now we wish we un-know ourselves from one another!” we replied proudly. I will definitely miss my fellow super hilarious, criminal-minded, power fool colleagues who would still have 1.5 months of brain-storming to take over the world and a presentation to do. Now I’d never know whether the Visual Sharp Sharp Pythetica Lab Plus Plus .Net language will be developed, whether they ever find the 5th person who is a dinosaur, and whether all of them are surviving the projects or killing the Python since “The last co-op who did this, DIED!” :)

Boarding the bus for the last time from this Valley Forge site, I got a little teary. I realized that even though my daily commute was annoying, I witnessed plenty of lives that are so different than mine. I saw their struggles and their joy, their good days and bad days. Such an eye-opener to the creative ways the Lord works through people’s lives.

Here’s to a successful, joyful, and valuable 4-month at PJM! I thank my Boss up above for this wonderful opportunity.

Watch Out, Dragons are Taking Over the World!

I can’t believe my journey is starting in 3 weeks. The cool office that has been handling all the nitty gritty businesses of studying abroad presented a Pre-Departure Meeting last night. Sounds formal, eh? Trust me, it was a very fun and informative night for us Dragons who will be dispersed all over the world this upcoming Fall term. These are the places where we’re ready to blow some fire (kinda looks like a World Cup group brackets lol):

You can also think of it as a see-you-later pizza party for us. Being famous for treating us international dishes, they took a spin this time by serving us the Drexel staple: Ed’s Pizza. What can be more American and (Drexel-spirited) than that? Kudos to the cool office again!

Some key take-away from this meeting:

*Don’t get arrested, or plan on getting arrested

*Don't try to be the next Eduardo Saverin

*Contemplate once, twice, three times before calling Dani’s cellphone for emergency (She’s the awesome cool office coordinator)

*YOLO! Be adventurous! Get pumped!