These Are The Last Days

Walking towards my hall building few hours ago, I noticed my room's light was off. I thought my roommate Tinglin was asleep already. However as I got in front of the door, I noticed her shoes were gone. I unlocked the door and instead of seeing her, I saw only plushies neatly tucked under her blanket. OH NO! She left without me having a chance to say good bye. I'm not gonna lie, but I got a little teary when I read her note. The morning when I woke her up with my arrival and the luggage noise that I made seems to be really fresh in my memory, just like yesterday.

So with that being said, this is very likely to be my last post written in Singapore as I'm leaving in 2 days. I've spent the past week just studying while being tourist at the same time: visiting places on my list that I haven't gotten a chance to visit. Among them are the St. Andrew's Cathedral, Peranakan Museum, Asian Civilisation Museum, and the Treetop Walk at MacRitchie Reservoir.

Saying goodbye is never easy, but I've been handling it well so far through some of the goodbye dinners I had this week.

Now that it is all about to come to an end, I can't even imagine how my life would've been if I didn't make the choice to come to Singapore in the first place. I wouldn't met these awesome new friends, nor would I traveled to these amazing places. I would've just been a typical Fransisca: clocking in and out of co-op for the rest of the summer, overworking myself with ambitiously packed schedule, looking for jobs that would pay me well after graduation, and just sticking with the status quo.

This semester has definitely been the highlight of my Drexel career and changed my life. My Singapore experience has changed the way I view my life and the ideas of rest, life calling, and community. I've also been challenged to step out of my comfort zone and complacency in many situations and without God's providence, I would never had the strength to go through it all. In a way, I'm sad to pack all these memories with me as I leave this place. But on the other hand, exciting stuffs are waiting for me in the States. Talking with friends back in Philly as we plan things to do this winter has definitely helped in getting me pumped once again for the  rest half of my senior year.

Good night, Singapore! I will miss you just like a migrated Singaporean does.

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 ;)

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 :)

Welcome Week

It's only my first week here, but my schedule is already looking packed. Praise the Lord that I am adjusting well, finally settled in my dorm, and familiar with the public transportation. The climate is hot (average high is 85 F) and humid (average humidity of 67%). If you want to send me snail mails, here's my address:

Nanyang Technological University

Hall of Residence 10, 52-4-1020

22 Nanyang Avenue, Singapore 639810

I still do get lost on campus sometimes. It is a HUGE campus with a lot of trees and hills, which is nice. However, the buildings are more like labyrinths inside another jumbo labirynth. There are 4 shuttle buses and one of them actually take people to the nearest MRT station. There are also 2 public bus routes serving the campus and surrounding neighborhood which pool at a nearby shopping mall called Jurong Point. Anyhow, here is the recap of the week:

•  Orientations: I got to attend 2 different ones for the general exchange as well as the Business exchange (more free lunches, more free goodies lol). Informations regarding transitioning into the whole NTU life as courses, healthcare, safety, and other services were being explained. I can't believe that there are 400-something exchange students in total this semester, yet very few Americans. Such great opportunities to make some new friends from all over the world, but I definitely still need to make more local friends :) 

• Cruising Singapore River: This is a great way to enjoy Singapore's greatest landscapes and history. Surrounded by historical as well as modern buildings, Singapore River is definitely the heart of Singapore. The "Quays" such as Clarke Quay and Boat Quay are also cool places to hang out. There are plenty of restaurants, food booths, and shopping centers too on these spots.

•  National Day: There weren't much going on in the morning. It was quiet until afternoon-ish when people started coming out for lunch and just hanging out downtown. Red and white totally dominated the city. Not knowing much about what to do/where to go, I was very blessed to be invited by my exchange buddy Christine and her friends to spend the evening with them. We had dinner of Hainanese chicken rice at the air-conditioned hawker center inside Marina Square before heading somewhere near Millenia Walk to watch the fireworks.

• A Day in the Bay+Singaporean meals: Another day of adventure! I started the day off with Singapore's national breakfast: Paket B from Canteen 11 accross from my hall.   For S$1.50 only, I had a very substantial breakfast of 2 boiled eggs, kaya toast, and a cup of tea with milk in it before heading downtown for the Singapore Flyer. 

I also had the chance to lunch at Canteen A with Ashley, one of the NTU Cru staffs who has been in touch with me. It was a really great time of getting to know each other, encouragement, and prayer as she introduced me to another Singaporean dish: laksa. I'm really looking forward to meeting my discipleship group (equivalent with Drexel Cru 's growth group) and going to Crossroads (equivalent with Drexel Cru 's large group) kick-off for the semester :)

Singapore Discovery Tour: Sponsored by the super awesome NBS Exchange Club, this tour took us through Singapore's important trails and landmarks. We started this tour on Bugis which is a  famous open-air shopping market for everything under the sun.  The guides got us a box of durian that we ended up throwing away because it was hard to insist us exchangers to finish it. We also had a chance to have some Singaporean dishes for lunch at one of the hawker centers.  

After fueling ourselves, we were ready for some more adventure. We walked to the Arab street and the Kampong Glam areas populated by Malay and Middle Eastern small businesses. The dominating businesses here are imported textiles, rugs, as well as ethnic food. There's also the famous Sultan Mosque in this district. After succeeding better in getting us to try food from the stalls, our guides took us on an MRT ride to the Raffles Place where we would meet our Singapore Footprint guides.

      

The Singapore Footprint guides then  led us through the most important landmarks in Singapore along  the river such as the Fullerton Hotel, Cavanaugh Bridge, Asian Civilisation Museum, Peranakan Museum, National Museum, and the Armenian Church. The tour ended there for the day, but a handful of us decided to go for more adventure to the recently-opened Gardens by the Bay. From this spot, we got a really beautiful view of Singapore's night. Tired from a day filled with fun, we ended up eating at the Marina Bay food court instead of the original plan of visiting the touristy Lau Pa Sat market.

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.