Goodbye Raleigh and NC State

It's been 6 days since I left Raleigh and NC State. Exams ended on 15 Dec and I left 16 Dec in the evening. I felt that I had left to hurriedly. I didn't have enough time to pack my stuff properly. I didn't have enough time to say goodbye to everyone. If not for Jen and Kelvin who helped me with packing, and Liz who drove me to the airport, I think I would have missed my flight which would have been very bad. In the end the flight was delayed though, cos it was snowing in Toronto.

The last week of classes before exam week (1-5 Dec) was a week of many lasts. Besides the last classes, there was also the last AO Bible study, last Campus Crusade Homeless Outreach, last Campus Crusade Prime time meeting and last Habitat for Humanity. At that time I really didn't want to leave Raleigh and NC State. I had been used to the lifestyle and feel comfortable there. Then during the exam week I was finalising plans for my post-exam travel, I was pretty excited about it, even though that meant my time in Raleigh and NC State is up.

My post-exam travel plans keep changing. At one point Jen and I planned to go San Francisco and Los Angeles together and I was so looking forward to it. But in the end I am not going to California after all, because I couldn't get an air ticket again, and Jen couldn't get her air ticket too. I guess for some reason God doesn't want me to go, and I'm ok with it now, because the desire to go there is not as strong anymore. I would rather spend the New Year with friends then alone in San Francisco. So the plan now is that Jen will come to New York City for New Year, and some other seniors from AO will be there as well. I will also visit Philadelphia, which is where I intended to visit in the very original plan. In any case, my 17 days of travel will be packed and happening! I think that after these 17 days of moving around, I would feel like going home already.

My last Sunday in RCCC (14 Dec) was one of the best days in my time here. The church had a Christmas service. I sang in the English choir with other college students, and two of my friends came to church for the first time. I was so happy they came. Yet it was also my last day at RCCC and I said so many goodbyes that day. These are people that have been part of my life the past 4 months. Students from AO fellowship, aunties and uncles who have been so hospitable to me, people in the Chinese NCSU Student fellowship, Aunty Cindy who taught Sunday School, and many more. I may never get to see them again, until we meet in heaven.


The choir group

So from Toronto on Tues night, I met Chia Ying and we took the train to Montreal on Wed morning. Stayed for 2 nights, then took the train to Quebec City on Fri afternoon. Stayed in Quebec City for 2 nights too, and I'm back in Montreal tonight before heading down to New York City tomorrow. It's really the first time in my life seeing snow everywhere on the streets. From Toronto to Montreal to Quebec City, there was snow everywhere outdoors. The view from the train was nice, maybe cos it's my first time in my life seeing so much snow. Walking in snow is fun for the experience, but I'm sure I would get quite tired of it if I were to live here. Trying to drag my luggage on the roads covered with snow was quite a challenge but I'm sure it was good exercise for my arms and legs.


In Quebec City.

Tomorrow I will say bye to Canada, forever. Hopefully all goes well at the customs. New York City here i come!

15 days left in Raleigh

I can't believe that December is here already. Looks like I've only blogged once in November. So picking up from the previous post, after I came back from Charlottesville on Nov 2, my next trip was to Chicago from Nov 21-23. Those 19 nights in Raleigh were actually the longest time I've stayed in my hall consecutively. I've been travelling a lot since mid-September and the whole of October and seen much fall foilage elsewhere. It's really nice to be enjoying the fall foilage in Raleigh in November, and I'll prob get to see them for another week or two.

I feel that I'm adapting to the cold here very well. Especially after Chicago, which was about 30 degrees the first day I was there. I mean 30 degrees Fahrenheit, not Celsius haha. It's about minus 1 degrees Celsius. The next 2 days were warmer though, and after I came back to Raleigh, Raleigh didn't feel that cold anymore. When temperatures first dropped to about 16 degrees Celsius, I started to wear 3 layers but I am still wearing 3 layers now even though it's about 8 degrees.

Honestly, I'm enjoying my time here so much that I'm really sad I have to leave. Before I came there were times when I couldn't believe that I'm actually coming to the US and it was so surreal for me. Now, I can't believe it's time to leave already.

I will miss the freedom I have.

I will miss the fall foilage, the mountains and the sunsets.

I will miss the RCCC and AO family.

I will miss the friends I've got to know here.

and many more things...

Earlier just now I was settling admin stuff for my departure. I've never dreaded doing admin stuff so much, not when it's brings you a step closer to leaving this place.

But I have to face reality and accept the seasons God has placed in my life. This season is coming to an end. There are things I haven't accomplished. Much in fact. So the next 15 days will be very precious.

Meanwhile, I'll enjoy whatever is left of the fall foilage, which is still quite a lot here. I was told that this year's colours in Raleigh are one of the best compared to previous years.

Fall in Raleigh

I haven’t been blogging for two weeks! So this post will be long…

Finally, the trees in Raleigh have begun to change colours after I came back from Charlottesville the first weekend of Nov. Before this, it seems that everytime I travel out I see nice fall foilage, only to see green trees again when I return to Raleigh. Not so anymore. Almost all the trees here have changed colours in the past 2 weeks and leaves have been falling everywhere. Now it feels like fall has really arrived in Raleigh, with the fall foliage and the weather as what I would have expected it to be like during this season.

The view from the corridor of my dorm in level 3 has changed from this



on 21st Oct, where the first fall colours are spotted on campus

To this



on 6th Nov (I love these bright red colours!)

And this


on 14th Nov, with the leaves falling all over the ground.

The weather in Raleigh has gone through many changes since mid-September. The week after I came back from Grand Rapids, it rained for a few days and the temperature suddenly dropped to about mid-10 degrees, which took me by surprise and I fell sick for a few days. I thought I wouldn’t be able to go out and read in the park or play sports anymore. Then about 2 weeks later, it became warmer; high-20s in the afternoon and I was able to go out in t-shirt and jeans again, and sit on the swing in the park to read. Then another 2 weeks later, it rained and became cooler again. It seems that it has always been raining on the weekends. Well I actually escaped the rainy weekends in Raleigh when I went to the Great Smoky Mountains and Seattle on those 2 weekends, but it was bright and sunny wherever I went. God really gave me very good weather when I travel. In Charlottesville it was such an excellent weather for hiking that I didn’t even need a jacket. However, after coming back from Charlottesville it rained for a few days and the weather has been pretty cold since then, so I haven’t been able to read in the park anymore. The past Saturday was an exception, when the weather went up to 21 degrees in the afternoon after it rained the whole of Friday. I wonder how long more I can still go to the gym to run in my t-shirt and shorts. I thought I wouldn’t be able to do that since mid-Oct but so far it’s still ok getting from my hall to the gym (which is like 1-min in the open) in my t-shirt and shorts in 10-15 degrees. Quite shiok actually, though I wouldn’t have thought I would do something like that.

And so, after travelling for 4 consecutive weekends, I have been in Raleigh for the past 2 weekends, but they have been just as packed and happening. Was supposed to go up to the mountains nearby with some friends on one of the Saturdays, but because the weather forecast says it’ll rain, we cancelled the trip. Here’s some of the stuff that has been happening over the past 2 weeks (other than the usual weekly Bible studies/homeless outreach/Crusade prime time):

Tue, Nov 4 – US Election Day

Well, I didn’t do anything special except to watch the presidential election results with the others from hall at the basement. Apparently, after President-elect was announced, there were students running, shouting and screaming along the streets. (I won’t have gone to check it out were I not in t-shirts and berms then, plus I had a test the next day.) I didn’t get to hear Obama speak in person both times he was in Raleigh. First time cos I didn’t get ticket and second time cos I had class. Not that I really wanted to go either but it would have been pretty interesting.

Thu, Nov 6 – Flu Shot

I actually got a flu vaccination at the Student Health Center cos it’s free for students under the health insurance which is compulsory for us to get (and this health insurance is “free” for me too).

Fri, Nov 7 – AO fellowship

AO fellowship gathering was at NC State instead of UNC (which is a 30-min drive away) so I naturally chose this over going for the Chinese student fellowship. The last time I went for AO was actually on Sept 12! I was really glad that I managed to invite two friends to go as well 

Post-AO activities were attending a Christian hip-hop music event where one of the guys was playing in and then guys/girls lock-in (which is basically a stay-over somewhere for guys and girls separately). I didn’t intend to go for the lock-in cos their plan was to return to campus at 10am the next day but I needed to be on campus at 8am. However, one of the girls was driving back that night so I decided to go hang out with them too and ride back with her. The girls had the lock-in at one of the girls’ house. It was a fun time of eating and chatting. Before we headed back to campus we stopped by church to pick up someone who went to the guys lock-in (which was at church) and ended up staying there for almost an hour before heading back. That day was the latest time I reached campus!

Sat, Nov 8 – (guess what this is?)

Now, this day has got to be one of the highlights of my exchange experience. I did volunteer work but it was a kind which I could have never ever done in Singapore (unless our land area increases by thousand times). Singaporeans spend hundreds of dollars to buy an air ticket to be involved in this kind of work in neighbouring countries. But I could just do it here and they actually have this every week. However, it rained that morning so we had to do a different kind of work but it’s equally interesting and it’s something that Singaporeans will probably never get to do on the overseas trips that they go for. So, guess what this is? (I’m sure most of you know this organization. If you think you know the answer you can send me an email before I reveal this activity in another blog post and maybe you will be rewarded with something if you have the correct answer).

Alexander Hall Winter Formal Dinner and Dance

Quite weird to call it Winter Formal when it’s still fall season but anyway it was a good time with the other hall people eating and taking pictures.



Sun, Nov 9

Church as usual, though I haven’t attended RCCC for the past 3 weeks. Had my first choir practice in the afternoon for the Christmas musical on Dec 14 which is gonna be my last service in RCCC. It’s pretty exciting 

Wed, Nov 12

Had my last test during the semester before final exams! So now I’m only left with a mini-project and a paper before the finals. Time for a breather first!

Thu, Nov 13

AO people “jio-ed” me to watch James Bond movie which premiers at 12 am. Didn’t really like the movie cos there was so much shooting and fighting and there was no plot or story.

Fri, Nov 14

It was a difficult choice to make between going for AO or the Chinese fellowship. I haven’t been to the Chinese side for quite some time already but this will be the last AO I can attend. In the end I went AO cos they were gonna practice for Christmas musical. As usual there was post-AO activity, and this time it’s another midnight movie! Watched Dark Knight at UNC for free! Each UNC students gets to bring in a guest for their movies and it’s free for everyone. Had to queue up early though. Enjoyed this movie much more than the James Bond one cos it has quite good themes.

I will really miss AO and everyone there. This bunch of people has been a significant part of my life here in the US. The fellowship group is very similar to SMU CCC and youth cell back home. The people, the ministry, and the things they do all remind me of SMU CCC and youth cell, not to mention it’s on a Friday night as well.





I actually got an AIM account so that I can keep in touch with them since most don’t use MSN. So now I have 5 IMs!

Sat, Nov 15 – same volunteer activity as the previous week

Also, I went with a group of Chinese/Korean/Japanese friends to k-box.

Sun, Nov 16

It was combined worship service at church, as the second session was used to vote for the deacons for 2009-2010, like the LCEC. Reached church half an hour late and had to sit in the overflow room, not to mention I missed the whole praise and worship. :( Combined services here at RCCC are really similar to the ones at KY. The one we had in Oct was mainly in Mandarin with English translation. This one was in English with Mandarin translation. I almost felt like I was back in Singapore cos Pastor Po-Wing is a Singaporean and still speaks with the Singaporean accent while the Mandarin translation sounded Singaporean too, or at least there wasn't any strong accent. After service went out with the AO people for lunch (the first time on a Sunday cos I usually eat lunch at church with the Chinese congregation people), then choir practice again.

Alexander Hall International Desserts Night

Held in the evening, where we had desserts made by people from all over the world. This is probably less than a fifth of all the food we had.



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Time flies so quickly. In exactly one month, I will have to leave NC State!

The past two weeks have also seen many changes in my plans for thanksgiving and post-exam. It has been pretty complicating and frustrating for me and being the indecisive person that I am, I spent a lot of time thinking what the best arrangement is. To cut the long story short, my initial plan was to visit San Francisco during thanksgiving break and my return ticket to Singapore is on 29th Dec. Both are unrelated events, but because of certain constraints I kept changing my plans and they affected one another. My final plan is to stay at Jen’s house during the thanksgiving break, and we might go up to the mountains for a hiking trip, stuff ourselves with food on thanksgiving day and go shopping on black Friday where they have huge sales! I guess I should take some time off to reflect on my time in the US too and start to prepare myself for going back. Also, I have changed my return ticket to 3rd Jan and go to San Francisco the last few days, hence I will touch down in Singapore on 4th Jan, hopefully with enough time to rest before the new term starts on 6th Jan.

This Week

There's so much I want to blog about that I don't know where to start. A lot has happened this past week. It seems that once into the second half of my time here, time flies and it's 2 months left before I touch home ground.

Some interesting stuff over the past week or so... Last Thu went for the North Carolina State Fair, an annual event that takes place in Raleigh. Went with the AO group (church college group) so it was pretty fun. It the usual kind of fun fair, with food, games, rides and also some exhibits of farm animals and farm produce of North Carolina, quite interesting. Tried quite a lot of different food, like funnel cake, candy apple, pecan pie etc. There was fireworks too for like 15 minutes, it goes off every night. Took the ferris wheel which was kinda too fast and it was cold but had a nice view of the whole fair.

Decided not to sleep on Thu night cos I had a flight to catch at 6am on Fri morning. It was really good to see the crusaders on webcam and talk to them on skype, and even book a GSR for them, so amusing!

Yeah I flew to Seattle with Andrea on Fri morning, and also took the Greyhound up to Vancouver on Fri afternoon and spent the night at Lijing's place in UBC. Went back to Seattle on Sat night then took the overnight flight back to Raleigh on Monday night.

Thank God that my test today is postponed to next Wed, and I had time to go for the usual stuff on Tue, Wed and Thu which I missed all last week. AO Bible study, Campus Crusade Homeless Outreach and Campus Crusade Prime Time.

Honestly, I'm a bit tired from all the travelling and then having to rush work during the weekdays. The marginial utility for each trip I take is decreasing and I just hope it doesn't go into negative. Leaving for Charlottesville in 3.5 hours' time. Will be going up to the mountains again :)

The Half-way Mark

Yesterday was the half-way mark of my time in the US. I realised that my time away from Singapore will be exactly 20 weeks short of a few hours. I left on 13 Aug 7.15 am and will return on 30 Dec 11.50 pm.

So, 10 weeks has passed since I arrived in the US, and these 10 weeks were nothing short of exciting and a great eye-opener. I still remember my first night here without my luggage! It was quite sad but I guess it's a chance to learn survival skills and how to adapt too. I've learnt more about myself, what I really value and enjoy. I've seen the beauty of God's creation in the mountains, lakes, streams, waterfalls, rivers and much more.

I've seen in real life what I learnt in Geography during my secondary school days - plains with meandering rivers from the plane before landing in St. Louis, the most beautiful skyline of the sunset on the 50-min flight from Chicago to Grand Rapids, great volumes of water flowing down the rapids and waterfalls at the Niagara Falls, the beautiful fall colours and spectacular view of the mountains at the Great Smoky Mountains.

I've visited museums and learnt about historical people and events that have impacted the world. The Gerald Ford Presidential Museum in Grand Rapids was an unforgettable visit that gave an inspiration to all to live our lives for God and trusting God and His purposes. The Holocaust Museum in Washington DC gave a more elaborate account than what I had learnt in History in secondary school. What my history textbook didn't mention was how some people in different parts of Europe from different walks of life and positions attempted to protect the Jews by hiding them or assisted their escape, and it was really touching to read the stories. And the nation of Israel was created indirectly as a result of the Holocaust, showing God's sovereignty in all situations.

I've the opportunity to live in a temperate country, seeing the beautiful colours of fall. Although the erratic weather can be quite frustrating at times, in addition to still not knowing how much to wear at what temperature, it has been a good experience to live in this autumn season for the first time in my life.

I've got to know many people from different parts of the world, the other exchange students, as well as fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. It's encouraging to see how God is at work in the lives of people and how people are on fire for God.

I could go on and on about the good experiences I had these past 10 weeks. God's blessings overflow, what more can I ask for? He has given me more than what I have asked for, and beyond what I imagined, even things I didn't ask for. May I not forget His goodness in my life!

Looking forward to more adventures ahead in the next 10 weeks! :)

Great Smoky Mountains (18 - 20 Oct)

This mountains trip was simply so great that I have to blog about this first even though it breaks the chronological order. It was such a last-minute opportunity that I’m still amazed by how it all happened.

Initially, I had many different plans for this weekend. The very original plan was to go Virginia to visit Shuang Ning, then the trip to the mountains with my other exchange friends was postponed from 2 weeks ago to this week, but we postponed it another 2 weeks cos the trees still haven’t changed colours. Then there was the option to go Washington DC again with UNC people for urban missions, but I would have to miss 2 days of class, including a test on Fri. There was also the football game on Thu and the special talk on Fri at the NCSU student fellowship. So I thought, I’ll just stay in Raleigh this weekend to study for my International Finance test, go to Southpoint Mall with Christina to buy some summer clothes that are on sale, spend some time clearing my table and reflecting. However, it seems that God had something else planned for me :)



After the NCSU student fellowship on Fri night, Luyan told me that she can’t give me a ride to church on Sunday cos some of them from the student fellowship were going to the Great Smoky Mountains. When she sent me home that night I asked her about the trip again. It’s just something that the few of them planned, to see fall colours in the mountains. Then she said actually I could go too. I had like 5 minutes to decide cos it only takes 5 minutes to reach my hall and they were leaving at 5.30am the next day. She called to confirm that there’s still space in the car for me to go then it was set that I am going to Great Smoky Mountains with the Chinese fellowship people. It’s indeed a God-given opportunity!

So 7 hours later, I was all set to go to the mountains! The Great Smoky Mountains National Park stretches over North Carolina State and Tennessee State, and is the largest wilderness area in the eastern US. It encompasses over 500, 000 acres of Appalachian peaks and is the most visited national park out of more than 390 parks in the USA National Park System, with over nine million visits per year! The peak season to see fall colours there is 15-31 Oct, so it was pretty crowded when we went.

There were 13 of us altogether, riding in 3 cars. I only talked to 2 of them before, so it took some time for me to warm up to get to know the rest. It takes about 6 hours to drive from Raleigh to the Great Smoky Mountains, but along the way we stopped for breakfast, toilet breaks and lunch. Along the highways, the trees are still mostly green and few have changed colours. But as we drove higher and higher up the mountains, the fall colours became more obvious. We stopped at visitor centres and scenic spots along the way to take pictures.

At one of the spots where we stopped to take pictures, one of the cars had some problems and the car company was called to bring a cooler for the car. While waiting, the rest of us went up to Clingmans Dome, the highest point of the mountains, at 6643 ft, or 2024m. We drove there and had to climb for about 20 minutes. It was a cloudy day, so there was so much mist that we couldn’t see much from the top and it was freezing cold!

When we went back to the spot where the car broke down, the view there changed because the sun came out from behind the clouds and the colours on the mountains were even more beautiful. How amazing that the car actually broke down at a place with such a nice view. Here, I fully understood the meaning of “breathtaking view” because it was indeed so! I had never seen such beauty in my life before. It was simply AWESOME! But my camera phone ran out of battery by then so I didn’t get to capture the view.

What happened next was super hilarious. It was already 6 pm plus by then so we decided that one car will go first to collect keys then check in to the bungalow house we are staying at and prepare food for steamboat. The other car will wait with the car that broke down, in case the car company didn’t come and they have to abandon the car. But there were so many cars that we were caught in the traffic for almost 2 hours, when it should have taken us just 30 minutes to get to the place to get our keys. From there we headed to our house and we got lost for a while cos the GPS gave unclear directions so we took a big round to get to the road that leads up to our house. At that time we called the people in the other car, only to realize that they were actually in front of us! They had expected us to be there much earlier and gotten everything ready for steamboat dinner when they arrived. Anyway, we set off to unload stuff and prepare food and in 45 minutes we were all ready for a great meal, of which I forgot to take pictures again!

The next morning we headed to Cades Cove, a popular area for biking, picnic and walking trails. The weather that day was excellent, clear skies and the sun was out, so it was pretty warm in the afternoon. We were caught in traffic again but the surrounding view was beautiful too. The elevation here is lower so there’s more greenery and fewer colours. We stopped for picnic lunch at an open area near the visitor center.

After lunch we walked through some of the houses of the Cherokee Indians, whose homelands were these mountains and looked at the way of life of these people. Then we went on a trail and our objective that day was to find a bear! We didn’t see any bears then but we saw some deer. And I managed to take this shot. We had to creep up quietly cos they will run away upon hearing us go towards them.

After the short trail we drove along and stopped occasionally to take pictures. And just as we were going to head back to the house, guess what? We saw four bears and quickly stopped the car to get down and take pictures. I couldn’t get any nice shots though.

That night we had steamboat dinner again cos there was so much food left over. Had a really good time that night just talking and getting to know more about them and the ministry. This trip is indeed more than what I expected! God surely made this trip very worth it!

The next morning I woke up early to catch the sunrise. However, the house is in the middle of a forest so there wasn’t a nice spot to see the sunrise. This was the best place we found.

After breakfast we checked out and went a few more scenic spots before heading back. We drove along the Blue Ridge Parkway, which run from North Carolina all the way up to Virginia. We stopped at so many places that we had to restrain or else we would never get back to Raleigh.

The words and pictures here are a far cry from the true beauty of the mountains. At the end of it, I really didn’t feel like leaving. But when it’s time to go back to Raleigh we all had to. Similarly, when it’s time to go back to Singapore I will have to. Also, when it’s time for us to return to our eternal home in heaven we will have to as well. So treasure the present!

The 3 days at the mountains were the best part of my time here (other than the Niagara Falls) and one of the best times of my life too. It’s certainly a very memorable trip that God has given me and I am simply in awe of God’s wonders. Besides the beauty of the mountains and fall colours, God brought me a step closer to one thing I’m seeking Him for. What a wonderful closure to the first half of my time in the US!

Fall Colours

It's been a long time since I last blogged and so much has happened that I want to blog about. Since my last post on Toronto, some interesting things that I want to share with you all (and hopefully will write about soon) are:

- Trip to Washington DC (7 - 9 Oct)
- Workshop on "Avoiding Procrastination" (13 Oct)
- Football Game (16 Oct)
- Trip to the Great Smoky Mountains ( 18 - 20 Oct)

Also want to post about:

- Campus Crusade Homeless Outreach (every Wed)
- School life at NCSU

Just writing these down so that I'll remember to blog about them soon. For now, enjoy these pictures of fall colours that I personally took at the Great Smoky Mountains. I'm usually not so fast in posting photos but these are simply so nice that I can't wait to share with all of you. So awesome and beautiful right? The actual colours look much better!

Well, just in case you didn't believe I really went there, here's a picture with me and the mountains.

Toronto (26 Sep - 1 Oct)

Time to talk about my Toronto trip before my next trip, which is... tomorrow, to Washington DC! This is a super overdue post.

So... my adventures in the USA has also brought me across the border to neighbouring Canada! Some photos are up on facebook already. There's too much I can write about but I guess the pictures will give you a better idea. Well I wasn't very keen on two consecutive weeks of travelling, but since Chia Ying's housemates were away that weekend it would be nice to accompany her. Thank God I recovered before I went and so was able to enjoy myself fully. And God really blessed me with special opportunities that weekend, like going to Midland on Saturday and seeing the street performances in Kensington Market on Sunday!

Anyway I arrived on Fri night and was received at the airport by Chia Ying and a couple who does the International Students Ministry, which Chia Ying is involved in. On Sat we got a ride from them to Midland, this place north of Toronto, about 2 hours away. They were going somewhere nearby to visit their son (they usually go on weekdays but this was an exception!) so they dropped us off at Midland, and we took the boat cruise there in the Georgian bay, which supposedly has 30 000 islands. Of course we didn't get to see all the islands, but it was quite beautiful, especially with some of the trees having fall colours already. There were many cottages on some of the islands as well, looks like a good getaway place. Also really thank God that the rained stopped in the afternoon when we were just boarding the boat!

At the Georgian Bay

On Sunday we went church in the morning then downtown in the afternoon. Had some chinese food in a Hong Kong restaurant in Chinatown, then walked to Kensington Market, where the street was closed to traffic for street performances and all. The street is closed to traffic for pedestrians on the last Sunday of the month in May to Oct, and we just happened to be there that day. Quite interesting. We walked further to Little Italy and Korean town too. I guess I was pretty surprised at the large proportion of Asians in Toronto. More than 50% maybe.

We had dinner at the CN Tower, the tallest structure in the world at 553 metres. The revolving restaurant is 350 metres above ground. Good view of Toronto and Lake Ontario, but it was quite cloudy and misty that day so couldn't see too far, and we also missed the sunset :( The food was good though, it's really fine dining! After dinner went to the open-air observation deck, which was super cold when the wind blew. The wind was so strong that it actually propelled us forward when we were walking! It was a happening day and we walked a lot. But more to come in the next 2 days.

At the Look Out Level in the CN Tower, 346 metres above ground.

Finally on Monday we went to the Niagara Falls, the place where you must go if you come to Toronto. It was really beautiful, but the sun wasn't out that day so we didn't get to see any rainbow :( Took the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which got us all wet from the falls and my camera phone nearly died! But thank God it survived after some drying, or else I would have lost a camera and a phone.

Then we did something adventurous - cross over to the US border to see the falls from there. It was much more beautiful at the US side, because we could only see the rapids from the US side. And it's so different in that US did it as a Niagara Falls State Park (which was quiet and serene), while at the Canadian side there were other attractions like museums, haunted house, ferris wheel, casinos etc.

There was just one (big) problem in crossing to the US. I didn't bring my I-20 form with me. This form is needed for me to re-enter US. We brought our passports because we needed it to take the tour bus from Toronto to Niagara falls but I didn't think I'll need the I-20 form so I left it at Chia Ying's place. Thought that if the US side didn't allow me in then I'll just come back. They did allow me in because from their custom system they could check and verify that I'm at student in US. But the problem is when I went back to Canada they didn't allow me in because I didn't have the I-20 form. The Canada immigration officer was very strict and didn't accept even though the US immigration side gave a written verification that I am a student at US. She insisted that I needed my I-20 form to enter Canada. So I had no choice, I stayed one night in US in a youth hostel near the Niagara falls, while Chia Ying went back to Toronto to take the form and came back to Niagara falls the next day and crossed over to the US side to pass it to me. Actually the next day when I crossed to Canada side with the I-20 form the immigration officer didn't really check the I-20 form. I folded the form and he didn't even open it to check that it was my name.

That day I walked the Rainbow bridge (the bridge that links US and Canada) 5 times! It so happens that every trip I go on, I have time alone myself though it's not planned beforehand, which is good I guess, I quite like it. But that day after looking for a place to stay a buying dinner, I missed seeing the sunset again :( Wanted to hang around a while more to see if the falls would get illuminated (as seen from the postcards) but thought that it wouldn't be on since it was already 7.30 pm then. It was getting cold to so I decided to check into the hostel instead of exploring more. Then I only found out when I arrived at the hostel that the falls were illuminated at 8.30 pm. It was deemed too dark and unsafe for me to go back there then, and the other girls there didn't want to go, so I didn't get to see it :(

So our supposedly one day at the Niagara falls became two days, because when Chia Ying came over the next day we spent the day exploring the US side again, and discovered more nice places to view the falls from! We walked so much those 2 days that my legs were actually aching when I came back to Raleigh. And because of this I-20 form I missed my flight from Toronto to Raleigh on Tues morning (as well as my classes on Tues and Wed, an additional 4 classes!). I booked the flight on Wed morning but because for Star Alliance redemption I have to book a round trip, so I booked another Raleigh to Toronto flight on 16 Dec. So the new plan is to go visit Chia Ying again after my exams. I really wanna come back to the Niagara Falls again, cos we didn't really walk much of the Canadian side (the place is simply too big!) and I must catch the sunset and the falls illumination then, which starts at 5pm during winter. Hopefully I will get to see a rainbow too. Chia Ying and I also talked about going Montreal and Quebec. More chance of seeing snow there :) Probably take the train down to New York City or Boston from there after that.

The American Falls


The Canadian Horseshoe Falls

On the rainbow bridge which links US and Canada.

On returning to Toronto on Tues night we realised that 1 Oct (Wed) is a public holiday in Singapore, so we decided to call Sarah that morning (Tues night for us). Haha we actually had "DG" for over an hour! It's so great catching up. And really glad to have been able to spend time with Chia Ying. The time spent those few days were probably more than 1 year's worth of DG time together.

What an adventure! Many more to come soon :)

The most happening, crazy, dramatic, exciting and adventurous week

Yes, the past week since last Fri has been happening, crazy, dramatic, exciting and adventurous. It all began with the trip to Toronto to visit Chia Ying. I shall leave the details of this trip to another post; it's too much to write in one post. Chia Ying has posted some photos on facebook and I'll upload mine soon.


After coming back on Wed morning I was frantically studying for my tests on Thu and Fri, but I still decided to go to Crusade homeless outreach on Wed. I shall leave this to another post too.
On Fri night I had the choice to go for AO fellowship or to church for the mission conference in Chinese. I decided to go for the latter and I'm so glad I did. RCCC has its annual mission conference this weekend, with sessions on Fri, Sat and Sun. The speaker is Elder Yu Muh Chieh from Rutgers Community Christian Church in New Jersey. I was so blessed and inspired by the message and the speaker's testimony. It's also great to be back in RCCC after two weeks of "absence". I'm so looking forward to the next two sessions tonight and tomorrow morning :)


Then after coming back from church last night I went to watch Kungfu Panda at 11.59pm. The campus cinema has movies at $1.50. I think it's a really good movie, lots of food for thought. Hmm... what is my destiny?


It's 2 pm on a Saturday afternoon and I just had a lazy Saturday morning, eating brunch and making travel plans with my Korean friend at the dining hall for more than 2 hours. It's seems quite rare that I'm around on Saturday cos I've been out of Raleigh the past two weekends. I actually had plans to go up to the mountains with some friends this weekend, but we decided to postpone it to two weeks later because the trees haven't fully changed colours. Two weeks ago, at Grand Rapids, a few of the trees there had changed colours and when I returned to Raleigh, I saw this from my hall window.


Today, the colours still look the same. Hopefully two weeks later when we go up to the mountains there will be more colours. I realised this is the first time I'm experiencing fall and seeing all these fall colours. I probably won't get to see this again cos I won't be able to leave Singapore during fall (at least for the next 5 years). There were some very nice sights in Toronto of colourful trees too.

But anyway, I'm glad to be around this weekend. If I had gone up to the mountains, I would have missed the mission conference. Somehow I feel that there are so many events in my life that is arranged by God. Even for my travelling trips, dates just coincide and I get rare opportunities like going up north on the first day in Toronto.

Someone told me that the trees probably haven't changed colours nicely as the weather here suddenly dropped. Yes the weather the past 2 weeks here was so erratic. There were a few days where it rained and temperature suddenly dropped, like 14 degrees. Then the next few days when the sun was out I thought the weather would be back to normal but no, it remained cold. The sun is so deceiving. It's not like in Singapore where you can look out of the window and determine that the day is gonna be hot and sunny. Here it looks sunny from the window so I thought I could wear t-shirt and berms only to realise that it's too cold the moment I step out of the building. So now I have to check the weather everyday before I leave house. The weather is very good today. Sunny and 24 degrees. A good afternoon to just go out and instead of staying in the air-con room to blog. Haha. Anyway I'm going to play frisbee then go for a birthday party :)

Grand Rapids (19 - 22 Sep)

I went to Grand Rapids in Michigan state last weekend and met up with Jenny who was there for work. My 2 favourite pictures are here and some others are up on facebook. Just a brief update here and will write more next time, not much time to update now cos i'm flying again in 2 hours, this time out of USA (haha... guess where?)

Anyway I arrived last Fri night at Grand Rapids, after a mad rush to catch the bus to the airport. The plane arrived early in Chicago so managed to connect to an earlier flight to Grand Rapids. It was terribly crowded at the Chicago O Hare airport so I'm glad I could board the next plane almost immediately.

On Sat we visited the apple orchard, the hush puppies store, Rockford (a small town), then in the evening joined the youth group there for their activities, which included a visit to a rescue mission and a bonfire.

On Sun we went to church, visited downtown and a cemetery nearby (quite a beautiful place). Joined a tabernacle tour for a short while and then went to Grand Haven to see the sunset :)

And Mon I went to the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum. I'm so glad I could go (thanks Beth!) as it was really good. I'm so inspired and touched by his life and how God seemed to guide him all along and prepared him for that 2 and a half crucial years as president.

That's all for now. More updates next week :)

Short update

A lot has happened these past few days... Study Abroad Fair, Campus Crusade Homeless Outreach, my first test here etc. Will blog more about these some time soon.

I'm off to Grand Rapids for the weekend :)

Blackout!

There was a power cut for more than 3 hours from 5pm plus just now. Classes were cancelled and all the stores on campus were closed. No air-con or electricity in our dorms so people started to come out to the open, studying at the benches, playing ball/frisbee, lying on the grass to read etc.

Benches that are usually empty were suddenly filled with people. My favourite place to study when I need to get out off air-con rooms to get some fresh air.

These people were playing this game called "four squares".

We figured that the dining halls were probably closed as well so I went with 3 others to the nearby street outside school to have dinner at a Korean restaurant. Interestingly, we are all from different countries. Food was not bad too but again I forgot to take pictures of it.

International people: (from left to right) Ji Seon from South Korea, Madoka from Japan, Rachel from US and me from Singapore! :)

The campus was almost pitch dark when we came back and alarms and flashes of lights were going off in the library. Some people were just hanging out downstairs while others were playing hide-and-seek (a good occasion to play this game heh). Shortly after we came back some buildings resumed power but my hall was one of the last few to get our power back. Not sure what caused the power cut though. I've never experienced a power cut in my whole life in Singapore so this was quite an experience but thankfully it was just for a short while only.

Dinner with Singaporeans

Yesterday, the pastor of the church I attend invited the Singaporeans here over to his house for dinner. His family has been in the US for about 18 years but he just moved to Raleigh about a year ago and is the english pastor of Raleigh Chinese Christian Church. Andrea and I went to their house after lunch in church and had a good time playing guitar hero and just chilling out before dinner in their beautiful house.

Another Singaporean family came for dinner too. A few other Singaporean students were supposed to come as well but couldn't make it. Dinner was prawn mee and laksa, prepared by Aunty Jean and Aunty Angela. It was the first time I ate prawns since I came! After dinner we had bobochacha, fruits and coffee too. (I forgot to take pictures of all the food!) It was a good evening with fellow Singaporeans :)

One month later... (Part 2)

And now it's been one month since I arrived in Raleigh. 31 days ago this time, I just checked into my dorm and feeling sad that I did not have my luggage with me. My worst experience here so far actually began right at the beginning, but I'm glad it's over and the experiences here after that has been good so far (including news of insurance claims haha).

So looking back at the past month, it seems i've done quite a lot. Attending welcome dinners, making friends, exploring ministries here, going to the gym (yes! more about this in another post), attending classes, doing things that need to be done when you live alone, making a trip to St. Louis and other trivial stuff. I still haven't gotten down to fully doing what I set out to do here and will need more self-discipline, determination and God's grace to do so.

I've been asked a couple of times by the people here what's the most distinctive difference between Raleigh and Singapore. Well there are lots of differences from people to weather to food. The top 3 "surprises" are:

1. People are generally more courteous. Cars give way to pedestrians crossing the road even when it's not at the zebra crossing. Everyone automatically walks on the right side whenever there's a divider, whether it's in a tunnel, the stairs or wherever. Holding doors for the person behind you is something everyone does, even when the person behind you is as far as 2 metres away.

2. There are more cars than people on the streets (outside campus). Even on normal streets (not highways), you hardly see anyone walking on the streets because everyone drives.

3. It's much less humid here than in Singapore and when it rains it's small rain for the whole day. Everyone was so afraid of hurricane Hanna last weekend though the rain that it brought to Raleigh was just like the thunderstorm you get in Singapore so frequently.

I think I can say I've adapted to life here quite well, especially with the food and living alone. However, one of the more difficult things is the language, and by this I mean the American accent (as well as the different accents of the exchange students from different parts of the world). It takes some effort to concentrate to listen to what they say cos it can be quite easy to switch off and not listen to the conversation. I guess some of the students from China probably feel this way too when they hear Singaporeans speak English (or Singlish). Also applies when I speak Chinese here to the Chinese students, cos after all my Chinese is not like theirs and it takes some extra effort to concentrate on the conversation. The Americans say my English is very good while the Chinese nationals say my Chinese is very good. Well they probably just didn't expect Singaporeans to be able to speak English/Chinese so well (I would think I'm not that good at both). Thumbs up to the Singapore government for implementing the bilingual policy in schools, as well as to my parents for training me in both languages at home!

中秋节快乐

Yeah it's mid-autumn festival tomorrow (or today, depending on where you are). I actually celebrated it today and ate mooncakes!

The NCSU Chinese fellowship of Raleigh Chinese Christian Church organised a mid-autumn festival event at Jordan Lake today. About 50 over students came, quite a good response. Met at the usual meeting place and car-pooled to get to Jordan Lake. The lake is really beautiful and huge. There were people on boats fishing in the middle of the lake and an area for people to swim too.

We had about 2 hours of free time to do whatever we wanted (swim, play frisbee, walk around etc). I joined the group playing volleyball, but there were quite a lot of people playing so didn't get to hit much though I served a lot. Then we had BBQ dinner, plus dishes cooked by the church members. Good time over dinner just talking and getting to know people. I always have stuff to talk cos they will ask about Singapore (I'm quite extra there cos the rest of the students are from China and some from Hong Kong). Met some of the people that I saw before at the welcome party/Fri fellowship/church/breaking bread/Raleigh tour. Also got to know 2 undergraduate Chinese students studying in College of Management (so far all the Chinese students I've met are graduate students). Ah it's so nice to not have to speak English sometimes (or rather speak proper non-Singaporean English that people understand). And yes, the dinner ended with delicious mooncakes (some home-made too!) but the park closes at 8pm so we had to leave before the sky even turned dark and couldn't stay longer to 赏月 and see stars.

What a enjoyable time with Chinese people. Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! :)

One month later...

It's been one month since I left Singapore. 31 days ago this time, I was saying my goodbyes to family and friends at the airport. Sometimes it still seems pretty surreal to me that I'm actually here in the USA. Well actually since Aug 10 life seems surreal and I still remember the pleasant surprise I was got when I returned home that Sunday and saw what my friends did for my party. Thank you again everyone! And thank God for His great blessings upon my life!

Yep and I've past the one month mark of being away from home for the longest time so far. It's about time I miss home and I really pray and hope that my family is doing well back home.

More Bible study groups

Alexander Hall Bible Study

3 Wednesday nights ago, someone knocked on my door and asked if I was interested to join the Alexander Hall Bible study group which was gonna start in 10 minutes time. I went and found myself in a group of fellow Christians living in Alexander Hall. There were 5 of us the first week, then 8 the second week and 10 the third week. There are Americans, Koreans, Singaporeans and a Hongkonger in the group. We decided to study the book of Romans for this semester, so we'll do 1 or 2 chapters when we meet every Wed at 10pm, and everyone in the group will take turns to lead. We also break into smaller groups to share and pray for one another. I think this is really encouraging, and I enjoy the fellowship with this international group.


Campus Crusade Bible Study

Since Campus Crusade here is so big (refer to post below), they have many Bible study groups classified according to gender, year of study and area. Their website actually can do a search to help you find a suitable group based on location, day to meet, year, and gender. I went for the junior girls group which meets at someone's house on Sundays at 8pm. Last Sunday was the first meeting for this semester and we started on the book of Hebrews. The group has about 10 people and it's rather cosy since it's at someone's house.

I'm not sure if I will continue with the campus crusade small group especially since I may be travelling a bit during the weekends. It's not totally easy to gel in too, since they are all Americans. It's very obvious when we go round and take turns to read the Bible passage. When it comes to me, it feels a bit like the flow breaks with my different accent. (This happens in AO too.) It's really great that the Bible study groups here all do book studies, which is what I've been wanting to do as well :)

Raleigh Chinese Christian Church

This is the church that I went to since the first Sunday I came (except for the weekend when I went to St. Louis). Well I got to find out about it through a few ways actually. Shuang Ning emailed me the contact of a friend in University of North Carolina who attends this church, cos the pastor is a Singaporean. And at the information fair during orientation I met this Chinese girl (at the Bridges International Ministry booth) who attends RCCC as well and has been giving me and Andrea rides to church every week. It's in Cary, another city, a 20-30 min drive from my place. I've also attended the welcome dinner organised by this church for the Chinese students the first Sat I arrived.

It's really like Kum Yan, there's English, Chinese and Cantonese service. Chinese service, Cantonese service and English sunday school are concurrent, at 9.30 am. Then English service is concurrent with Chinese and Cantonese sunday school at 11.15 am. It's pretty much a family church. Most are Chinese who come from China, Taiwan or Hong Kong. The English service has mainly the young people who grew up in America (ABCs) while the Chinese service has mainly the middle-age folks and some students from China. The first 2 weeks I attended both Chinese and English service. The English pastor is from Singapore who has been in the US for 18 years, but he still speaks like a Singaporean, without the American accent. So it's really like listening to a sermon in Singapore! Last Sunday I attended Chinese service and Chinese sunday school. There are 4 sunday school classes to choose from, I went for the book study on Genesis and thought it's really good!

There's lunch every week after service/sunday school at 12.45pm so I get to eat Chinese food at least once a week :)

Now for the fellowship groups of RCCC...

Alpha-Omega Fellowship

This is the college fellowship group of RCCC, with students from NC State and University of North Carolina. They meet on Fri nights for their large groups, at UNC in Chapel Hill, which is another city, about a 30 - 40 min drive from NC State. They have Bible study groups too, the NC State people have one altogether on Tues night and the UNC split into guys and girls for Bible study. The Bible study just started this week and the NC State people are studying the book of James. So far all the Bible study groups I've attended here do book studies, which is something I haven't done for a long time in groups in Singapore since doing Romans in cell during JC days.

I went twice, the 1st and 3rd Fri. 1st Fri was their welcome party/dinner. It's like SMU CCC Vision Tea. There were about 60 people I estimated. On the 3rd Fri I went cos there was a sharing by one of the brothers who spent a year in China teaching English in a university. And he's angmoh! Most of the people in this group are ABCs, or more generally, Asians who grew up in America. Most are from China and Taiwan. But there are a handful of angmohs too.

I really enjoy the fellowship, and the fact that they are Asians too makes it easier for me to gel in, as compared to say CCC here. But on the other hand it can be a bit intimidating cos they speak with the American accent which somehow I don't know how to describe but it's just quite weird that they look like Asians but speak so good English. And some speak good Chinese too, better than mine!

It's really a lot like Crusade and youth cell back home and it feels like family. About the size of JUMP and youth cell too, or maybe slightly larger. On the 3rd Fri I stayed back after that to hang out with them and fellowship. We played games like table tennis, pool, mexican dominos at the dorm games room. I actually got to know some of them better through that time. Every week someone will send out email to coordinate the car pool and everyone gets sent back home.

NCSU Student Fellowship

This is the Chinese student fellowship group of RCCC. It's more like a ministry than a fellowship. They meet on Fri nights too, at another church near school, about 5-10 min drive from my place. There's dinner (Chinese food!), cooked by the church members. Then there's worship time and after that break up into small groups. Small groups are

1) Seekers Group in English: For those who are interested in Christianity and also wish to practice English.

2) Seeker's Group (Mandarin): For those who wish to learn about Christianity and are comfortable in Mandarin.

3)Christian Bible Study: Bible study for Christians. Doing the book of Philippians.

4)Discipleship Training: For new believers.

As this is for Chinese students, almost all of them are graduate students who are doing their Masters and PhDs. Quite a number of the students serving in the ministry have come to know the Lord through this ministry. And every year they have new freshmen coming in who join the seekers group.

I went on the 2nd Fri with the intention just to check it out, and I joined the Bible study which I enjoyed a lot and wanted to go there again every week but went AO on 3rd night cos of the China sharing, and then found myself enjoying that fellowship a lot as well.

Well the thing is both are on Friday nights so I can only choose to go for one. I've kinda decided to go for AO but attend the Chinese service and sunday school at RCCC and join other activities by the Chinese NCSU Fellowship like the up-coming Mid-Autumn Festival event this Saturday at Lake Jordan. So I chose not to go for the Crusade fall retreat which is this weekend too. Anyway there's a AO fall retreat coming up soon at the end of Sept :)

More on other fellowship/Bible study groups in the next post!

Trip to St. Louis (30 Aug - 1 Sep)

Hey all, sorry for the delay in updating, it's been such a happening week.

Last weekend I took a trip to St. Louis, since there were no classes on Monday as it was Labour Day. Met up with 2 friends there. Chen Lu just started her freshmen year in St. Louis University and Debbie Lam is on exchange at University of Missouri - St. Louis. Debbie was really nice to let me stay at her place so I saved on accommodation. She had made prior plans for sunday and monday so I didn't spend much time with her but thank God for the good talk we had on monday night before I left.

Quite a rushed decision to go St. Louis just for 3 days but I guess I mainly wanted to go to visit Chen Lu and travel around to see the city. Hope to visit as many places as I can these 4 months here cos I may not come back to this part of the world again.

Thankfully this time there were no flight delays or cancellations (except for a 20 min delay from St. Louis to Washington DC on the way back). Oh the plane from St. Louis to Washington DC and back was very small, with 3 seats in a row and 18 rows, 1 toilet and 1 flight attendant. The view before landing in St. Louis was so nice, with views of the meandering rivers and the plains. It's like seeing the pictures you see in geography textbooks in real life!

Here are some pictures. The rest are posted on facebook.


Me and Chen Lu on the bridge separating Missouri and Illinois state. We took the MetroLink (which runs under the bridge) across to Illinois state and walked back along the bridge.

The view of the Gateway Arch from the riverboat. The ride was not very interesting cos the view is nothing like what you see along the Singapore River, not to mention Shanghai's huangpujiang 黄浦江.

View of Mississippi River and Illinois from the Arch, 630 feet high. Yes, you can go up the Arch via a tram and there are windows with the view of Missouri on one side and Illinois/Mississippi River on the other side.

The Arch is apparently the tallest monument in US, taller than the Washington Monument in Washington DC (oh i hope i can go there sometime too!). There's a Museum inside the Arch, underground, showing the history of America's mid-west expansion, story of the travellers Clark and Lewis, integration between the Indians and the whites etc. A lot to see and learn.

On Sunday went to church with Chen Lu and her friend, Long Fei. St. Louis Chinese Christian Church is pretty much like Raleigh Chinese Christian Church. I suppose there are chinese churches in every city in the US. Attended the chinese service which had about 150 people. In the middle of the service there was a combined prayer meeting for about 30 min and the english congregation people came into the sanctuary then left after it's over and the chinese service continued. Haha just thought it was quite weird. The people were very welcoming and every week they will have people to interact with the newcomers over lunch. Yes the church provides lunch, RCCC too but we put the money for the lunch into a box. So actually I get to eat rice every sunday for lunch.

Other places I visited in St. Louis are the St. Louis Zoo, the Scott Joplin House, and St. Louis University. I even ate at the dining hall there for 2 dinners (cos most restaurants were closed during the Labour Day weekend), it's just like the dining hall in NCSU. St. Louis is definitely a more developed city as compared to Raleigh, where you hardly see any high rise buildings besides in the downtown. It's also convenient to travel around by the MetroLink (and MetroBus), unlike in Raleigh where buses are few and infrequent. Both their universities are 10 min walk away from the MetroLink station so it's really convenient. The MetroLink goes to the airport too (15 min from University of Missouri) and runs over to Illinois as well.

What a good trip, to be able to meet friends and see the place (with "free" flight and accommodation). I feel so blessed!

North Carolina State University

Now for an introduction (my own version) to North Carolina State University (thereafter referred to as NC State), the place where I'm studying at this semester.

At the Campus Crusade meeting it was mentioned that there are 32 000 students at NC State, of which 4 700 are freshmen. So it's a really huge university with 10 colleges and between them many departments offering over 100 degree programs.

The campus is divided into central, north, west, south and centennial campus. There's a campus bus called Wolfline that runs through the campus but I've never taken it before. My classes are all within the north campus which is very near the central campus where my dorm is, so I just walk. Students can ride for free on the Wolfline and the public buses in Raleigh when they show their campus ID card.

Hillsborough street runs along the boundary of the north campus and has lots of food outlets. It's almost like the only street outside campus where you see people walking along the streets.

This is the entrance to one of the three dining halls. It's where most students eat their meals, and there's meal plan where you pay in advance for a eat-all-you-like, aka buffet. There will be a few dishes that is served the same day once the week, but some stuff that will be there every day are burgers, hot dogs, fries, pizza, salad bar, fruits, desserts, ice cream etc, really a lot of food!

Just a nice scene of the campus, a place I walk pass every Tues and Thu when going from my International Finance class to the Public Finance class.

The building on the left is Harrelson Hall, where I go every day as I take two courses there. It is quite special, being the only circular building, designed by students and is said to sink a two inches every year if I remember correctly.

Now for the library, it's 10 storeys high and is a very nice place! Bookstacks like these below occupy seven floors!

And in this picture below you see many people at the computer terminals and two television sets where people are playing wii. How interesting!

One interesting fact is that many of the buildings have multiple exits and exits on multiple floors. Oh the campus is rather hilly, maybe like NUS and NTU. Sometimes I walk uphill only to have to walk downhill again. I don't think there are any escalators. We all use the stairs (except the circular building where you can walk in circles to go up the building or the library since it's 10 storeys high) but anyway the buildings are about 3 or 4 storeys high only.

An exciting weekend lies ahead. Watch this space!