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.

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!

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.

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 :)