enough.
i've travelled enough to last me for the next few months. pfffffft.
so i left yesterday morning at 8.. flew for 3.5h to arrive in hk.
hkia is a mess. i took two trains and believe i ended up at the same place.
security was obviously heightened, as i discovered as i neared the gates with flights to ny/la/vancouver/the likes. i got patted down..and every pocket and item of my bag checked. seems meticulous but one could easily conceive of places to hide...stuff, if one intended to. i think dogs are more effective.
but i liked the attitude of the err..check-ers. they're so polite and don't make you feel like a criminal. not like immigration officers of certain countries, who have that stern you'd-better-pray-all-your-papers-are-in-order, accusative look, which i shall call the "universal immigration officers' look". pft.
though hkia is a mess, it's still very pretty! the last time i was transiting i didn't notice that it was surrounded by mountains, each higher than the previous.
flight was delayed here.. but no worries. all subsequent flights were delayed.
the 13.5h flight to la was, as all longhaul economy class flights go, miserable. the guy to the right of me had big arms and legs that invaded my seat space by about 1/5 (the seat is very small already... 1/5 is rather signifcant) such that i kept to my 4/5 of the seat the entire way. the girl in front of me was lucky, she had a seat that reclined a bit more than the normal seat (i compared it to the seats next to her), such that my knees were pressed against the back of her seat for most of the way. so claustrophobic. and the flight is always divided into pre-fed, being fed and post-fed periods.
security check for la-chicago wasn't Too bad. but if not for the 50 min delay for that flight i wouldn't have made it on time.
and maybe dogs aren't That effective. i saw it yawning away as his officer brought him down the line. what if he's had too much to eat and isn't interested in smells anymore, for that day. oh well.
so after another 3.5h i arrived in a dark drizzly gloomy chicago (what'snew) , dragged my luggage to the bus station... and waited for my midnight bus. i managed to subscribe to hilton's (which is opp) one hour wireless, beautifully timed such that the bus arrived 1 min after i got cut off. hehe. -_-
meanwhile, i met rajiv! harhar. who just got back from ny. it's good to see a (somewhat) familiar face at least.
so after another 3h bus ride ...
i finally arrived at grace's place at 4am and it's now 7am and i couldn't sleep and i'm starved. yay. i want bakwa. damn. i didn't finish the bag at home before i left.
very : (( now.
it seems alot harder to leave this time, as compared to last year. i think coz there's so much s*** waiting to be done. and Everyone's still back home. =(. i miss you all already.
the first few days are never nice.
and now i have to take care of my own dining. groan. (paiseh to complain but not even the thought of manwok or coldstone can cure this..)
packing time.
this is gonna be the format of my entries from now on, i reckon.
fri - aug 4
met up with the bday girls, jennie and kailyn, and the nonbday girls, hon and ili too. we got jennie make up..harhar bet it was somewhat of a surprise. and kailyn liked this bag (yay, we were thinking very hard of what to give her, but she solved the problem)... so tada.
finally watched pirates with jen. loooooong. got a bit draggy in between. but the sets were amazing. and the fighting was comic and rather skilful.
sat - aug 5
our first Real dive off pulau hantu. enjoyed the boat rides... like i always do. enjoyed the sun too. but i'm solar unpowered. the more sun i get, the less energy i seem to have. the visibility was Good, by hantu standards. 1m. you could see your hand when you stretched it out. clapclap.
had alot of problems equalising on the very first dive. i was one of the first to go down...and soon enough pple started clambering all over me, kicking me with their fins etc (all trying to hold on to the line because of the poor visibility and strong current. if you lose your grip..byebye...). after a really long period...i got clambered all over again. coz everyoen came up. while i was still struggling to equalise and get down.
but 2nd dive was alot better. and bu zhi bu jue de, we were down there for 50+ mins. felt at most like half an hour.
after that got home grabbed a shower and met junwan for dinner before going for absolute 06. it was alright, met alot of pple in the end. but two of us had to leave early. oh yes most notably i found out fabian is going to uchicago.
sun - aug 6
went to sixuan's house with my mom. they invited us over for lunch. how sweet=).
since we were gonna have our 412 dinner later in the evening and sixuan had nothing in between, i asked her along to the uiuc bbq at bernard's place. i'm really glad it turned out well. coz she's quite sociable when she's in a sociable mood=P but i guess shenting and junwan helped alot with her level of ease. i was too preoccupied with playing tennis with the freshies.
then near 6 the freshies started setting up a fire..and i had to leave liao..it was almost 7...and i promised to be with 412 at 7. hai it was difficult to tear myself away coz the fun was just starting and more imptly the food was jsut being served. dickson had arrived 10 mins before i was gonna leave, and he said, orh, the next time we'll see you is prob in champaign liao. that kinda struck me. so scary=S
so then two of us cabbed to far east and joined the 412 girls for dinner at the turkish place. we moved on to nydc for dessert after that=). met many pple. em kai ili SERENE AD (budd) sixuan jen hon val yunlei and jiamin. harhar he is adopted into 412. had a great time chatting with them...but was very : ( after that. i believe i've mentioned it before; it's at times like these that make me miss friends alot. refer to hon and em's entries about that. they verbalized our sentiments well.
oh yeah i got sacrificed. next class gathering will be after i leave. boohoo.
mon - aug 7
went to tennis at justin's again. think it's the last time before i leave...
tues - aug 8
wah slacked at home..slept through most of the day. harhar. much to jennie's irritation, i can tell.
then went for theory lesson lor. wah 3h lesson. grrr. unbearable. but excited about this weekend's trip. glee.
wed - aug 9
went out with parents and their friend and their kid...who (ok more like the parents) wanted to ask about applying overseas. sian. but of course i put on a =) and helpful front.
thurs - aug 10
very hectic day. met dpoon (who's back! and was very sweet!! coz he got us goodies=) sq and joshua for lunch at food republic...then met sixuan for fortune telling. -_-. pui. then followed her to nus...where i sought asylum...but in the end went to biopolis to play pingpong! mwahahaha. fun.=( won't get to play much there. then left for orchard for 3f dinner! yay.
good to see everyone. but realise i'm getting bad at catching up with friends in big groups...like junwan. was driven back by baorong! =).
but heard some traumatic stuff=(. made me =(((((.
fri - aug 11
went to harbor front and had dim sum lunch with yaowei (who's leaving on monday, with sis to uiuc), yunlei jiamin ngiam junrong and joshua. =). then after that hung around with yaowei and junrong and ngiam at spinelli...before i had to chiogn back and pack my bag for the dayang trip. we're supposed to meet at the dive center at 6.30-_- it was already 4-_-.
so i chionged back chionged packing and chionged to the dive center. we took a very chiong bus ride for 3 hours to mersing..then took a 4h boat ride to dayang. my god. no wonder pple get sea sick. i wasn't feeling fantastic myself. but luckily it was at night and just slept through it. but the window on the boat was open and for a while salty water kept splashing in my face. -shudders-.
sat - aug 12
we woke up a little late..8...for b'fast and briefing. then we did our first dive. pretty pretty=)))). many colorful fish. like underwater world.
then we came back and had lunch.
then we dived.
then we had goreng pisang for afternoon tea.
then we dived.
then we dived again without dinner ;( (night dive! was brilliant. if only i could see better. missed out on alot. but it was uncannily serene...and i liked that lar)
then we came back and had a bbq dinner. i personally had 2 servings.
i think i gained weight.
and i etched the scene and the feel of the beach and the jetty and the blue green waters in my mind liao. just close your eyes and breathe when you're distraught/pissed/depressed. just think of this!
but...there was one thing that i didn't really understand.. there was one person whom, everytime i looked at him, i felt this overwhelming, helpless and inexplicable sadness.
very weird..
but by this day i was rather relaxed already. all the things that had preoccupied my thoughts the previous day were slowly drifting away. this is what i needed, even though it's the last weekend before i leave..
du musst eine bessere person für dich selbst werden.
i figured that it's quite necessary for me to do sth getaway-ish once in a while. otherwise i'd really suffocate.
sun - aug 13
we did two more dives. i finally get to do a back roll entry. =) that made my day.
and then it was homeward bound. a 4h boat ride (we suntanned a Bit. ah, nothingness but the water and the sky. the boat rides back to the jetty after each dive was one of the things i enjoyed the most! dangle your feet overboard) and a 3h @!#%!$%!#$#! bus ride. (oh yeah we had ramly on the way back.) REALLY didn't feel too good after that.
the pple in our course were really interesting too. sometimes it's really a matter of luck... we made friends with all of them.. and i really like our instructors. so anyone who wants to dive, go to www.orpheusdive.com. (and pray you get Mei Ling) =) harhar help them promote. since they were so friendly and not impersonal. we had so much fun laughing away with zhiguo siqi meiling and jennie on sat night talking about our (lousy) buoyancy and night dive.
felt really sad and drained after getting back to sg. always feel like that coming back.
oh yeah. i missed ktv on sat. =(. but this was worth it.
mon - aug 14
lunched with eunice at taka. got to spend some time with her=)... then followd her to nus... and met hon and mag and sauyee at yih. "sunny ar". harhar. then went up to i2r and met junrong and tracy, who returned me $$ for ipoh. had to chopchop go off after that to...
meet ERIC!! at jurong pt for dinner. we spent pretty long chatting. it's so fun and lighthearted. =). hai. good to see some things are still the same. harhar he's still as -whiny- when it comes to talking about ns, and still wearing baggy clothes, and still wols wols de.
"me: eric is ___________?? hon: ***!!!" harharhar.
tues - aug 15
packed packed..ok threw things around and tried to find other things (i used to be neat...i vaguely recall. or was that just a myth). gave up. and went to play badminton at clementi with junrong ooi and joshualim. that was fun...challenging. (aching again..) but my presence was demanded back home for dinner=( (i dragged as long as i could). my farewells have begun, and this was with ooi and joshualim (who's flying earlier than me! thurs night!)
so i got back to ntu and quickly ran all the way to the staff club and ate... dad's friend was here... then chitchat a bit lar. pretend to be a good girl. harhar. keeping up appearances it's called.
wed - aug 16
even more hectic day. went to nus early to get sth... and then went back to imre to get sth. met yunlei there and kinda said goodbye.. then went to i2r and said byebye to junrong and fcs... awww. ;(.
rushed to science and met grace. said goodbye too... was then handed over to hon, em and baorong, the med pple. yunlei and jiamin joined us for lunch too. but ooi was too busy. pui. met zhenchang and yeeonn in the science canteen... And ningqi and ronnie... and joanne christelle xiaohui donald wenkien. walao. i.e. alot of pple.
then headed to PS and met lalit (!!) zhixiu dennis dquek helmi yeelin and sq. yay. =). hmmm. interesting topics we always have...ranging from politics to harharharhar. cough cough. certain prominent, controversial figures in uiuc. entertaining.
then met sixuan and jen at jurong east for dinner. mag ng dropped by too! but mag lee couldn't.
thurs - aug 17
is packing and stay home day. no buts.
