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.

Pre-Recess Week Post

So the moon cake festival at Takashimaya was not disappointing at all despite of what everyone said regarding "No need to go Taka, can do at any mall". What a huge festival with a LOT of moon cakes to sample. I've never seen so many varieties of moon cakes before such as durian, red wine, chocolate, caramel, red beans, even Angry Birds. Kudos to Matt, the local buddy of my UK exchange friends, who guided us through and took us for the fish and chips dinner long-missed by the UK chemists bunch (Yup they're all chemistry majors.No offense to the engineers, but eating with engineers is getting overrated after 4 years of Drexel).

After church Sunday, I went with Ann, Rensy, and Purun to Swensen's. We can say it was quite a spontaneous plan. As a buffet fan, I haven't tried to go to any self-serve buffet in Singapore. It was only a dessert buffet, but that's exactly why it's perfect for girls outing time :) First time I have a piece of real carrot cake in Singapore (as opposed to their carrot cake). We had such a great time that me and Rensy almost forgot that we had a Chomp Chomp dinner appointment with Louis and Rayden, local buddies of ours. More local tastes from the best hawker centre in Singapore (I had asked more than 5 locals to confirm this).

So what's next? Recess week is here! I just need to attend 2 presentations tomorrow morning then off I fly to Ho Chi Minh in Vietnam. The 4 of us (Rensy, Ann, Diana, and I) are travelling together this time. We'll spend Friday through Wednesday exploring Ho Chi Minh and staying at Rensy's house. Another bunch of exchange friends is joining us on Sunday and Monday as they come down from Hanoi and would continue their journey to Phnom Penh. Comes Wednesday, we'll be in Bangkok until Sunday. Very excited for this trip of a lifetime ;)

It's Beginning to Look Like Mid-Autumn!

Back in the States, I had never noticed anything about Mid-Autumn festival unless I go to the Oriental Supermarket only to find that the festival is over from the deeply discounted moon cake prices to get rid of them. Here, though, it's a big deal. The Chinese Society on campus had a festival at our own Yunnan Garden a couple weeks ago. I didn't quite make it since it rained. FairPrice, which is the grocery store chain I go to regularly, even has its own row of lanterns, moon cakes, and so many other festive stuffs.

Speaking on Mid-Autumn festival, I've been attending weekly coffee talks hosted by the International Student Center here. I was quite looking forward to it since the topic was conversational Mandarin. However, I had to say I kinda set my expectation quite low. It was such a neat session of learning Mandarin with Mid-Autumn festival themed lesson. We even had some moon cakes as the Chinese Society taught us about the various type of tea and performed their traditional tea art ceremony (gongfu). I really enjoyed sampling the various traditional teas they had. My favorite is the fully-fermented and aromatic black plum tea (keemun hongcha)

So to join the festivity, me and some UK exchange friends are having lunch and heading to Takashimaya at Orchard Road today. Not to shop for moon cakes (man, they are expensive until the festival ends), but to sample them around hahaha. Pardon us the thrifty expats, we're just college students after all :D

Zhu ni zhong qiou jie kuai le!

Exchange Life Starts to Get Busy

General warning: please forgive me if this post and future posts are lacking in quality compared to the first ones. My life just got so much busier. Out of the 4 classes I'm taking here, 3 of them are group project oriented. I also caught a flu somehow somewhere. I went to the school clinic and was given some medications. Feeling much better now, thank God!

Since people were mostly away (general majority went to KL, Melaka, Vietnam), it was quite  a quiet weekend for me. I took the chance to catch up with some homeworks, readings, and projects mostly on Friday. Then on Saturday, I went to LEGOLAND! It was the grand opening day in Johor Baru, and I managed to secure a pretty nice Groupon deal that includes 2-way coach and admission. It was really nice to spend the day in a land full of my favorite toy ever as a kid. I got to play with majority of the rides since it was quite small. I was about to enter the driving range, but the guard said "Sorry, this is only for 6 to 13 year olds". Wkwkwkwk :D

Also, coming home from LEGOLAND, I was able to watch the special show celebrating Merlion's 40th birthday. It was pretty awesome and of course, ended with a bang from the fireworks.

What a Crazy Week It Has Been! :)

And by crazy, I really meant I couldn't find another word to describe my week haha. There have just been so much random things going on :D

I finally paid my visit to Holland Village and Night Safari. To compare the 2 on the scale of 1 to 10, I'd give Holland Village a 9 and Night Safari a 3. But keep in mind that I don't like animals, so I might be bias. Anyhow, Holland Village is such a very laid back district with many restaurants and coffee shops to hang out. Typical expats would love this neighborhood. Moreover, there is a branch of Pho Hoa there!!! I haven't had my bowl of pho in quite a long while and definitely need to go back there for that :))

Other than that, upon meeting and befriending some Singaporean and exchange students from the Deli Aprecio club, we kinda created our own subgroup just to do our own food trips together. Our journey began with  Japanese Street at Jurong Point. It was my first time having okonomiyaki, which is Japanese traditional pancake. Yurie, the Japanese in the group, approved that it was quite an authentic Japanese experience. Yay :)

For dessert, we stopped at Ji De Chi for some traditional desserts and snowies. Their idea of dessert here is always something icy. Sweets and cakes, on the other hand, would be considered "snacks".

And to welcome Jia Jia and Kai Kai on their arrival day, the new panda couple at Singapore's Zoo, I had this bowl of udon for lunch with DG gals

My life can't never get random enough, so last night I celebrated Vietnamese independence day with Rensy. The Vietnamese student group here was holding a really interesting show of historical videos, traditional dances, as well as live comedies. I should say watching a comedy in different language has never been funnier, thanks to Rensy for translating :D

Up next for today: Deli Aprecio trip to Bumbu. People said it's a Thai-Indo fusion restaurant quite interestingly. Let's see how it is.

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.

Solo Adventure Followed by Another Great Week

Last Monday was a public holiday here in Singapore for Hari Raya observance. Since everyone else decided to sleep in, I took that opportunity to just explore on my own  some interesting faucets of Singapore that others most likely won't be interested in visiting. My adventure that day began at Chinese Garden, which is just a few MRT stops away. It's a really refreshing place to run, bike, and picnic. I almost forgot all the dynamics of industrious Singapore as I climbed the main pagoda and saw so many green :)

From Chinese Garden, I hopped on the MRT to Haw Par Villa or Tiger Balm Garden, which happened to be a tourist trap. Other than the not-so-aesthetically-painted Chinese folklore statues, there's really nothing else to it. However, after entering one of their attractions called "10 Courts of Hell", my heart was just amazed once again as I was reminded of how deep my Father's love is for me. He could've just poured all His wrath on me because as a filthy rugged sinner, I deserve punishment. As vivid as they were, the kinds of wrath I saw through statutes at that place would not probably compare to what I deserve. But the good news is He chose not to. Instead, He poured it our on His perfect son Jesus Christ so that I can be one again with Him and experience His grace and mercy.

As I continued to think of His love, I moved on to my next stop: Singapore Botanic Garden. For the interest of time and mom's love of orchids, I purposefully zoomed into just the Orchid Garden. I was really glad I went there since there were so many colorful and rare collections from around the world that I haven't seen before.


As far as campus life goes, this past week has been very dynamic and fun, thanks to Campus Clubs and Activities Fair. Beyond the freebies and free food, I think I've became interested in joining Deli Aprecio. Class activities have also picked up and I made more non-Business friends through my Engineering classes.

That's about it for now. Stay tuned for more updates on my Malaysia adventure this weekend :)

The Honeymoon is Over!

Classes finally started this week for me here. First day was especially hectic for everyone who was trying to add/drop courses. Praise the Lord I pretty much have all the classes that I wanted except for 1 that would ruin my 3-day weekend anyway.

Aside from classes, I had the cool chance to visit Microsoft Singapore as a part of the Entrepreneurship and Innovation week at NTU. All of you B&E majors reading this, please don't be jealous or bitter. It's our bread and butter, gotta get it where ever we can :)  Microsoft HQ here is amazing and the people taking us on a tour was awesome. We got to play with many of their new gadgets and innovation. Located on the 21st and 22nd floor of One Marina, the view outside its windows was simply gorgeous as well.

I also praise the Lord for providing me with a family of believer on campus. NTU Cru is adopting me during my exchange here. I was plugged right into a discipleship group for final year ladies.

This semester, we're going through a Cru curriculum that speaks about being sent to a world of harvest through a biblical perspective. Crossroads also kicked off last night. It was awesome to finally meet everyone in the ministry. Next week, we will be having a vision tea for to welcome the freshmen, and I'm glad that they asked me to be a part of their flash mob dance to this song.



So this weekend is a long weekend due to the Hari Raya, but unfortunately the ICA hasn't issued my student pass yet which means I can't travel outside Singapore. The plan is to check out the World Food Fair and hang out at Orchard Road today with my fellow Dragon Rensy. Tonight, the group of exchange students I've been hanging out with is also throwing a sushi dinner and karaoke for the birthday girl Diana. A relaxing day at Sentosa Island might be planned for tomorrow. For the rest of the weekend, it might just be exploring more of Singapore's hidden gems :)