a place to remember

this place has grown and shared many shades of my life and psyche for a fair bit of time now, and events chronicled here have invariably shaped me. as time progresses, familiar places take on different meaning while staying significant enough to remain in our lives. as places lose that significance, they move into our past, remaining in our lives only as memories.

alas, it is time to leave this place, and find a new direction.

to my friends and readers who come here once in a while to enjoy the view, thank you for the memories, and see you around soon.

leaving with the kidz

have been pretty busy since i got back on monday meeting people up and unpacking and using up singapore’s precious water supply by showering like 5 times a day..

right now im packing my bags again for my grad trip to tw/hk with the kidz. i’m looking forward to a really good time..

catcha guys when i get back!

leaving, coming

tonight i will return to dear edmonton, grab my stuff, and hop on a plane back to good old singapore. this is my 100th post, so fittingly, and hopefully, another century of posts will follow once i return to life at home. someone once said that wishes are just that: wishes. but still i wish this exchange werent ending quite so soon. i doubt i will find a reason to return to edmonton anytime soon.. but im gg to miss it nontheless..

that doesnt mean that im not looking forward to seeing the inside of changi airport again tho. 

i havent had the time to write about the trip after montreal, but i will.. if and when i can find the time.

ppl… im coming home! cya soon!

montreal

being in montreal is like enjoying a french movie with english subtitles. the whole place is so french yet when you open your mouth to speak the comparatively coarse english language u never fear that you might not be understood.

old, colonial-like buildings mesh with new, modern glass skyscrapers. history, culture and all that modern city living should be like all in one place.

it’s like a colonial englishwoman married a french man and they both decided to go live in america.

cold feet

seems that the weather does have a way of mocking us. it’s been snowing for the past 2 days nonstop. highly unexpected, but not at all unusual apparently. so it’s back to the half a foot high of snow on the ground, -10deg C temperatures and looking like little polyester/wool/down balls tottering down the sidewalk whenever we go outdoors..

i can’t describe how much i’m not looking forward to melting like an icecube in singapore’s urban jungle…

meanwhile, as i study in the ship (our hall’s cafeteria), i’m warming my fingers by holding my timhorton’s coffee up to my lips ever so often while my feet are getting cold cos im wearing my national footwear..

2:02am

time now is 2:02am. i have found that whichever part of the world i am in:

1. i still study better at night

2. i still love having ppl ard me when i study

3. it’s as quiet as ntu study areas at 2am in the morning

4. having a laptop open while studying (or pretending to) is still as distracting

5. mugging still feels the same

6. the only thing that changes is msn, which is even more distracting because for all my friends it’s like 4 in the afternoon

all that stuff is in my head of course.

im comfily settled in the sub (students’ union building) right now, with my laptop open, earphones plugged in, a textbook opened to page 273 and a notebook strewn across the little table with my green pencil resting on top.

the study area is a nice, open place with tables arranged nicely among low concrete partitions. from my position i have a clear view of the sub food court directly in front of me accross the hallway, which contains stores like java jive (high class kopi), subway (same as in sg), edo (oily noodles pretending to be jap food), funky pickle (pizza – nice!), cram dunk (low class kopi), and a coupla other stores that i have yet to, yet have no desire to try. i really should. just for the heck of it.

every night the cleaners will come by with mops and clean the floor with soapy suds that make the whole place smell like it was just flooded by water from swimming pool whose attendant has a significantly diminished sensitivity to the smell of chlorine. there will be guys driving this big thing with scrubs on the front around - like those big trucks you see on the roads in sg that sweep up litter on the sides of the roads – presumably scrubbing the dirt and muck of the floor. not that there’s alot of it to start with, now that spring is most definitely here and people dont walk in with muddy wet shoes anymore.

it’s so easy

to act like i’ve lived in this wonderful weather with temperatures ranging from -45 to 18 deg C for all my life.

to pretend that i will be back next semester.

to imagine that i have been here for the past 5 semesters, mugging like i am now.

yes i still remember. and i can still imagine,

that i’m in can A, or in some good old nbs tutorial room. and i can remember, studying with such fervor in one of the smu seminar rooms.

so distant and surreal, yet i know it happened.

and a little while from now, as i walk through the corridors of nbs, so too will i remember my time here in exactly the same way.

the familiarity, and the ease with which one gets used to things,

yet the frightening speed with which we let these experiences slip away,

makes one wonder, if any individual human endeavour is meant to have any kind of permanence.

1 to 5

1 last day of school tomorrow

2 final assignments due for the term

3 more lessons in the morning

4 hours of exams, and

5 weeks to go before i see singapore again