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!