I went to Sunset beach for the weekend. Yay! finally got to see the beaches and whats outside Chapel Hill. =)

The trip was really fun. I went with Intervarsity Christian Fellowship. They had a New Students Retreat, so I just decided to go for it....on a whim. haha. Don't regret it though even though I had a lab exam and econ mid-terms the monday and tuesday i got back. =P Apparently a lot of people had exams and papers due that week to and brought work to do....BUT of course nobody did it.

For $60 i think the trip was a really good deal. We were a 5 mins drive from the beach and our apartments are GORGEOUS! I think my mouth stayed open for quite some time.

Below are some pictures I remembered to take at the retreat. The first pic is of the people I sayed with at the retreat. the 4 on the left are juniors and the rest are freshmen. the girl to my right in blue drove me and few others to this place. and yes, i'm the shortest! laugh.

This is my small group. They're a REALLY great bunch of people! too bad we couldn't spend a lot of time together.

I REALLY REALLY like this picture. and the fact that i took it makes it even nicer. hehe.

This bridge is really cool. sunset beach is on an island so the bridge connects it to the mainland. Its a single lane bridge so each lane takes turns to cross. i heard that sometimes, people can get standed overnight because of jams.

i am stressed.

things are going too fast. what happened to breathing?! i thought that when i get here, i would be able to take the pace down a notch and actually think. BUT, i guess thats not gonna happen any time soon.

i've been trying to put off the question on "what am i gonna do with my life?" for some time. BUT it keeps popping up. with only three years of university while everyone here has 4, i have to decide on what i want to do by next semester. do i want to do pre-med? do i actually want to do bio? if not, what else can i do and actually a job later? what about other things like job hunting and volunteering? i need to factor in things like cost and start planning soon. like now.

there are other things on my mind too. studies aren't the only things...

i hate it when these thoughts come crashing down on me all at once. it makes me panicky. i know that God will bring me through this but right now, i have no idea how He will pull it off.

URGH!!!

i don't believe this. yesterday, i forgot that i had econ lessons at 8am and happily slept til 10. i didn't even remember it until philosophy lesson, which was at 11. to top THAT off, i misunderstood the due time for the philosophy paper outline and so i had to explain why i only mailed my outline to my prof during class. he was really nice about it though because seriously, it was an honest mistake. =(

i was totally depressed that day la. couldn't concentrate in class because i was so horrified that i missed my morning lesson. HOW CAN I FORGET THAT I HAD LESSON?! this is absurd. anyway, my econ teacher was also very nice. she said i could meet her during her office hours. so phew!

i thought that was a bad day. THEN......i woke up at 8.30 this morning. AND MISSED MY BIO CLASS. WHAT THE $%##@$#. (sorry, just had to vent.) when i found out the time, i just lay in bed thinking of ways to kill myself.

the thing is, i really really didn't hear my alarm clock ring. i checked it and it was turned on...but somehow i just didn't hear it. sheesh. talk about a bad ending to the week. could whats left of the week be any worse??! seriously....

God is really good.

He's blessed me continuously since I've been here. I'd worry about something and suddenly, the situation gets solved, many times without me doing anything. Sometimes, I'd pass some of these blessings off as coincidence, but seriously, when its happened so many times already, coincidence is no longer an option.

Your grace is sufficient for me. Thank you Lord.

There was REAL rice yesterday for dinner at the dining hall. I mean REAL WHITE rice. The one you get back home. Not the "fake" one they always cook and tastes weird and so i never eat. hehe.

I realize how happy I get when I see glimpses of the familiar, of home. There's something warm and comforting about it. And i think the others feel the same way cos you should have seen what are fool we were making of ourselves standing over the plate of white rice and exclaiming about how "real" it was and that the cooks actually got it right for once. (they made something that looked like fried rice with the "fake rice" and....well, i didn't like it. They made fried noodles too with spaghetti which somehow didn't taste right either.) haha. maybe i'm a picky eater. no wait. actually i'm not.

anyway, the weather's getting colder now. this morning the temperature was 12 degrees. ITS GONNA BE FALL!

I know I should have said this some time back...BUT, I'm really thankful my dad came with me to North Carolina.

At first, I was resistant to him coming along with me cos of problems with booking airline tickets, accommodation and not knowing what is he to do when he got there and me having orientation the day after i arrived.

But he came anyway. And although we were separated during the flight from Hong Kong to LA, due to an airlines' incompetence, I am really grateful for his company. Looking back, it would be lonely during that 12 hour wait in LA. Moreover, I probably wouldn't know what to do during all that time.

During the initial 3 days in UNC, it was almost a relief each day to see his familiar face amidst the sea of strange and unfamiliar ones. I think his presence there helped to make the transition easier, somehow.

I have no idea why i seemed more jetlagged then him. But i wasn't in the mood to make effort to talk a lot to people on the first day of orientation and after that i was so convinced i'll never make friends in this place. So you can kinda imagine what it felt like to see my dad after the long day and be able to talk freely with him.

Dad would join me during lunch or dinner when we ate at the dining hall. I tell you, he was so funny! while i was jet-lagged and slightly cranky and not in the mood to talk or even make the effort to, Dad struck up conversations with every parent on the table. I'm not exaggerating! He spoke to everyone! and i felt this eased the mood a lot as everyone started talking about where they were from and stuff.

I started talking a little more after that.

when it was time for him to leave, a sudden realization dawned that i was really gonna be alone and he's not gonna be there to help me anymore. and so when he hugged me that last time, i cried. ok, not bawl but i did cry a little. it just came as a wave...

Ok! Here are some of the long awaited pictures i promised. There's more but i'll post them up at a later date. Enjoy!!

This isn't my dorm room by the way.

Condoms and tampons. sheesh.

i realized something really important. university has a lot of distractions. （i'm not talking about boys).

there's so many things to do, so many activities to join, so many overseas programs to choose from! just this week, i had to decide whether i wanted to go for intervarsity big group, whether to go for the nus-unc cookout, whether to go for a friend's farewell party, what do i want to do for fall break...etc. lunch, brunch and dinner are all also something i have to decide on as these things can range from 15 mins quickies when i eat by myself or 2 hour long discussions on religion and life or plain crap.

the freedom here is seriously overwhelming. I AM OVERWHELMED! but would i trade this experience? my answer is a definite no. i found i discovered a lot about myself. things previously overlooked and i'm enjoying this journey of self-discovery.

i still have a lot of questions left unanswered from when i left singapore. and after coming here, i have more. but i've decided to take my time to find the answers. no point rushing to find out something and finding out later the information attained was superficial, false or not for me to know then.

oh yes! i think i haven't told any of you what i'm taking this semester. so here are my classes. by the way, should you forget, i'm supposed to be a bio major.

Biol 276 and 276L - Evolution of vertebrate life
Philosophy 160 - Introduction to Ethics
Econ 101 - Principles of Economics
Communications 085 - Think, Speak, Argue
Chinese 313 - Advance written chinese

here's something you'll never find back home in Singapore.....


pit preachers


there are around 4 or 5 of them and they come as and when (mostly during my class times cos i don't really see them around when i walk near the pit). there's one preacher, gary birdsong who got suspended from speaking at the pit til march when he refused to give way to another group who booked the pit earlier....so now, he's the quad preacher.

i've only been to one session of their preaching. and stayed for 10 mins. but coming away from this, i really don't know whether to applaud these people or feel their work here is really meaningless.
it takes a lot of guts to really stand in front of hundreds of students a day and have people actually go to these sessions with the intention to bait you.

today a guy was questioning whether the old testament really said that the would be a messiah coming (as in the actual word, in hebrew of course). another girl "recalled" that she was under the impression that Jesus was put to death because the romans felt he was a threat and not because he died to take away the sins of the world.

just standing there, it really made my blood boil how people, just for the sake of baiting the guy, said whatever that came to mind without whole or even substantial proof (of course some thoughts are what they truly believed in). most of them wanted to talk. and just stood there and laugh. and the guy just kept explaining and explaining and explaining.

BUT i guess one thing good about all this is that i saw people actually getting excited that someone was there sharing about the faith. the guy standing behind me kept saying to his friend "thats what i'm talking about man!" people here are not afraid to show their faith. these pit preachers have been here for years and yet they never cease. this says a lot about how convicted they are. college students aren't the easiest people to talk to or convince.

i haven't seen every preacher yet but i have heard that one guy talk about how 30% of college students engage in premarital kissing. another "comdemned" quite a lot of his audience to hell. that would actually be quite an interesting session. i must go and find him.

Throughout the endless ages
You have been crowed with praises

Lord most high
Exalted in every nation
Your're soverign of all creation
Lord most high
Be magnified

ok. yesterday, i did a very bad thing.

i went to Duke and missed the first football game of the season. SHEESH. AND i heard that someone parachuted down with the ball and there were fireworks at the end of the game when we won! HOW COULD I HAVE MISSED ALL THAT!!!!!

anyway, the singaporeans all went to Duke because the Singapore Student Association there had a picnic/karaoke session and they invited us to join them. we came too late for the picnic where they had TAUHUAY and CHIN CHOW. But the night ended well with karaoke, bridge and mahjong (yes, i actually learnt how to play mahjong).

duke is absolutely gorgeous. its so beautiful and gothic. i really really like the architecture. there are flowers everywhere. and its not the "going to die" kinda flowers with ugly , dull colours. the flowers here are very bright, hightlighter shades. the whole of duke looks like a huge fortress. reminds me of medieval castles. haha. i like.

after walking through it for a bit, everyone inevitably started to compare the layout and buildings with UNC. true, duke is lovely. but the whole place just seems too prim and proper and slightly depressing. (there's too much shade perhaps and the buildings are crammed quite close together.) UNC has a lot of open spaces and because the foilage isn't as expansive, the whole place looks very bright. i realize then that UNC has a very welcoming atmosphere that wasn't really apparent at duke, no matter how friendly all the singaporean dukies are. (btw, these are just my thoughts. i have nothing against duke). =P

i'll load some pictures when if find out how.