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| Vacation Finale: Walking down memory lane in Taipei I guess I can finally say that I'm back in Singapore for good this time. My vacations and travel adventures will be put on hold until I can get some leave days from work. I recently spent one week in Taipei, just bummin around with Tufts friends as well as other family friends. It was a joy to be back in the city that I grew up in as a kid. The last time I visited Taipei was Christmas 2003, when I met up with the same group of Tufts kids that I hung out with this time around. Its amazing how much people change in the span of four years! I also met up with our family friend, whom we first met in 1990, when I was in second grade studying at TAS! Way back then, our families used to climb Yangming shan together, as well as going on road trips together into the suburbs. I also met up with cruise buddy, Debbie in Taipei too! Congrats on finding your wedding gown there! Woot woot. One of the highlights of my trip came during my last full day in Taipei, when I went back to Tianmu and revisited the places that my family used to live in. I have not been back to this area since I left in 1993, so I was really looking forward to this mini-adventure. It makes me sound really old, but if any of you guys get the chance to revisit your childhood neighborhood, you really should do it... good memories man! Although the Taipei skyline underwent major changes in the recent decade, like Taipei 101, but Tianmu remained largely the same, as I still could navigate my way around the small alleys and locate the apartments. After locating the apartments, I decided to walk down the main road in Tianmu, in search of a tuition center that I used to take abacus classes in 1990. I vaguely remembered the street name, so I just wondered down the alley, and low-and-behold... its still there! After 17 years and after the earthquakes/economic crisis, the store was still there and it looked exactly the same. In any case, I found the other apartment that I lived in from 1991-93 with relative ease. I went into a flower shop to purchase something and as I was talking to the florist, I asked her if her shop was here in 1993... and much to her amazement she wondered how I knew. So I told her my story and it led to a good conversation. I also revisited TAS... I'll tell the story in the captions below. All in all, I'm really glad that I had a chance to revisit some old friends and to a chance to chill with my Tufts friends before they return to the States. A big shout out to Tom who was an excellent tour guide and host. So if in LA, call up Ken Lee, if in Taipei, call up Tom Chou! And now, its time for me to get myself ready for my first day of work... 10 more days to go! Picture time! Sightseeing around Taipei- Tom brought me to a lot of different places... places like the National Museum, Taipei National University, the clubbing district, the nightmarkets and obviously to all the good eats! Debbie, Tom and I met up in the University district and we walked around the campus... it definitely looked a lot like the Qinghua campus in Beijing for some reason. The long boulevard leading into the heart of the city reminded me of the days that I used to run into Qinghua during my Beijing internship. Anyhow, we proceed to go to a bowling alley where Debbie dominated the bowling lanes and dutifully kicked my sorry ass.  
Taipei American School- After much haggling with the guard at the TAS guardhouse, I finally managed to infiltrate TAS. The admissions lady asked me if I was an alumn. I guess if I spent 2-4th grade in TAS, I could technically be counted as one right? hahaha, anyway you may notice that I'm wearing my SAS shirt! Haha, I did that on purpose and I obviously got a few stares from the TAS HS students who were there to do volunteer work for the elementary school summer camp. So I decided to wander around the halls of the elementary school and to my surprise, nothing has changed. The layout and carpeting of the common area (pic on the right) for the 2nd grade floor was exactly the same as the layout in 1990! Even the SMELL was the same too! Brought back soooo many memories of my second grade class, Mr. Stenson's class. It was the first time I've ever attended an American school, where nobody says "fullstop" but instead says "period." If you're a TAS-lover, then you may want to look away now... cause I entered the gym and I found the banner that said 2001 IASAS Badminton Boy's Champion. Man... that didnt go down very well, it brought back some memories that I'd rather forget. We were so close! Anyhow, so I found the section of the bleachers that had the SAS/TAS acronyms on it and proceeded to give a one-finger salute to the Tigers. Lol. So much for being a TAS-lovin alumn huh. SAS pride baby. I'm trying to find the pic that I took in 2000 when I was at TAS for MUN, but I cant seem to find it... it was a pic of Albert and I (2nd grade friends) standing outside the same hall of flag as the one pictured here. Wow, I just realized that this was the first time in 7 years that I stepped into TAS! Anyway, it was a nice visit to TAS, brought back nice memories of the IASAS/expat/american school days.    
Old Neighborhood- So thats me.. in front of the apartment building that I lived in from 1991-93. If I had the chance, I would've tried to see if I could enter the apartment and see if my room was still there. On the way to this building, I walked on the same pavement that I used to walk on everyday to the pickup point for the TAS school bus. Good times... except that the place was always full of dog droppings. :p That's Andrew and I standing in front of a Taiwanese ad sign that reads: 6-pack Taiwan beer for NT$192. The interesting part about this ad? The new phrase to call six-pack in Chinese is called "yi shou" or literally "one hand." I find it really creative, since you use one hand to carry a six-pack. Another useful addition to my limited Chinese vocab.   | | |
| Post-Cruise Hangover And my graduation trip(s) continues! Just got back to Singapore a few days ago, after a 12 day cruise in the Mediterranean. What a luxury! During this cruise, we visited the Greek islands of Mykonos, Santorini and Rhodes, as well as the Turkish cities of Istanbul and Ephesus. It was a really neat experience, and surely one of the most luxurious holidays that I've ever been a part of. I was part of a 60-strong "Shanghai/Taiwanese" delegation, and man did we make sure that our presence was felt throughout the entire boat. It was great to see my parents be surrounded by their friends and having an enjoyable time as well. As for myself, I met a whole bunch of expat kids and they really reminded me of my SAS days. Funnily, they were also SAS'ers, although the S stood for Shanghai, not Singapore. Just hanging out with them made me realize how much I missed those fun days in HS. I was like a kid again, sneaking drinks into the theater room onboard the ship so that we could have mixed drinks while watching a movie. How HS-ish was that?! lol... fun times. I also met up with a few really cool people who were my age. We really bonded during dinner time cause we'd just keep on ordering more food and sharing whatever we had on our plate. I was really amazed at the quantity of food that was consumed by our table on a nightly basis. 2 appetizers, 1 soup, 1-2 salads, 2.5 entrees and roughly 3 dessert servings per person! Thats sooo insane. But our dinner bonding experience was really one of my personal highlights of the trip. Props to Rick, Linda, Sally, Eric and Weak Sauce Debbie! My personal favorite port-of-call was definitely Santorini Island. If you ever get a chance to go there, please make sure you bring your camera and just spend a few minutes every now and then to take in the scenery. Absolutely gorgeous. I wouldn't mind going back there again... in fact, I'd probably hit up one of those hotels they had on the island... cause their infinity pool overlooks the vast ocean! Interesting fact: A dinner table seated with 4-5 Asians is usually louder than a dinner table with four westerners/europeans. If you put 60 or asians clustered together for dinner, managed chaos would soon unfold. It was incredible how loud we became on a nightly basis. On the first night, everyone was still kinda shy and hesistent in speaking too loud in the Grand Dining room onboard the ship. But man, by the end of the cruise, our area was seriously as loud as a fishmarket. You'd get stares from everyone just cause we were so loud. Hahaha, good thing the person in-charge of the seating arrangements put us in the corner of the room! If we were allocated tables near the middle of the dinning room, everyone would've been so upset! Cheers to being loud Asians! Whoopie. Picture time! Most of my pics are on facebook, but the ones you see here are not uploaded onto Facebook. Enjoy! Pictures: Some family pics. The top one is at the Fountain of Civetta, on the outskirts of Rome. It was a garden that had 160 or so fountains in it. It was beautiful ,but the main attraction, which was this Organ Fountain was a major disappointment. It was much more worth it to walk the grounds and explore the other fountains, than it was to crowd around all the other tourists to see the one fountain. Then the other pic is obviously taken in Athens, on top of the Acropolis. It was under severe restoration work, so yeah it wasnt very grand. Plus it was too hot and too crowded... it took away the grandeur of the place.  
Mykonos Island- Nice island, but a big tourist trap. I'd skip this island if you were on a tight schedule and head straight for Santorini. There were a lot of small churches that were painted in the signature white color. There were four windmills on the Island.. they kinda look plain, but I guess it was the "main" attraction. Having said all this though, it was still a beautiful island with crystal clear waters. Had some really good gelare there, better than the ones that I tried in Rome.  
Santorini Island!- Beautiful! The streets were really narrow, but once you get out into an open space, you get a chance to see the buildings that were built on the cliffs. Again, its a touist trap, so try not to buy anything... although my parents did buy a whole sackful of pistachio nuts. The island also produces some kick ass wine, you gotta try the Vincento wine. It gives a mighty good kick when you take a shot, but its as sweet as honey. I like it but not enough to buy a whole bottle of it.   
Ephesus, Turkey- So this was the reconstructed enterance into the Ancient Library of Ephesus. It was truly a grand sight... now that I've seen this, I really want to see the temple in Petra, Jordon which was carved straight out of the rock. If you paid the Turkish government enough money, you could even get married in this ancient city during night time. How cool would that be! That's the Bospohrous Straits in Istanbul- It seperates the Asian side of Istanbul from the European side.  
The guys... several of the were high schoolers and they were just really fun to be with. Everyone looking hella sharp everynight too. And then my favorite picture- The people that made up table 510A and our excellent server Domingoes. I doubt I would find another group of people that could eat as much as we could on a daily basis for 10 straight days. We were awesome. Cheers!  
Graduation Trip Part III- ..... And as of today, I'm headed to Taiwan from July 26-August 1. My last leg of my extended (and very expensive) graduation celebratory vacation. | | |
| Back in Singapore
I cannot believe I've already been back in Singapore for almost a month! Its quite surreal to be back in Singapore, especially since I've moved back into the apartment that I lived in when I was in the army. I must say it feels kinda weird... sometimes I would remember those days and it was all that pleasant. Oh anyways, now that I'm back, I'm still not quite adjusted to the heat/humidity and local food. As many of you know, due to my skin condition, I've not been able to eat certain types of food, so its kinda hard to pick and choose the things that I want to eat. In many ways, I'm still like a stranger back home, I still need to the pictures of the food so that I know what I'm ordering... I still dont understand 100% of all Singlish. I found out that they have incorporated even more hokkien into the local slang, so I've gotta get up-to-par on that. But the one cool thing that I get to do in Singapore is to drive my parent's car. Since they are not in Singapore for most of the time, I get the car to myself! Its really a blessing since I can drive to pick Hui up from work and have dinners during the weekdays.. a car is important since she lives on the other side of the island. It takes me about 35-40 min from her place to mine, yes that might not seem far for you Americans.. but thats one long drive in Singapore. hahaha
Oh well, I'm off to Italy/Greece/Turkey in a few days... one last holiday before starting work in August. Might make a trip to Taiwan to visit my suitemates, but that is still on hold, as it depends if I can redeem my miles. That sums up my past month after graduation... I cant believe it was one whole month ago! Anyhow, the following pictures were taken from graduation and my subsequent trip around the US.
Tufts Graduation- 2 years after all the SAS guys graduated, it was finally my turn. I guess Kuah and I were the last ones to get our degrees. Lol. The weather on the day was absolutely horrific. The thunderstorm occured right when my IR portion began and man Prof Devine (or however you spell his evil name) was the WORST ever speaker I've ever encountered. He gave us a lecture on Socrates, Plato and Seinfield? Not that anybody cared since we had to "boo" him off the stage. I dont understand what possessed him to give a speech that had nothing to do with graduation. And as always, it was a chaotic mess during the prelude to the ceremony, due to a lack of organization and ushers. But whatever, four years and I'm out. Whew... and I'm looking forward to what's ahead.
 
Martha's Vineyard- Absolutely beautiful place... so tranquil and quaint. We went during the early part of the season (before the throngs of tourists and celebrities), so we were fortunate enough to have toured most of the island without experiencing any traffic. The place where we stayed (Winnentu Resort) was gorgeous. It even had a private beach! The ocean-view and the scenary from the hotel was great, and the tourist attractions around the island were equally scenic. Obviously we had our fill of lobster and lobster rolls. Hui had her share of homemade icecream and chocolate fudge.
 
 
San Fran & LA- Met up with the Lee brothers. I totally forgot to take a picture with Slin, but at least I remembered to snap one with Ken. Always awesome to meet up with more SAS guys, and its good to see that the both of them were enjoying their work and lifestyles in Cali. I must say, Slin came a long way from his SAS-goth days. Hahaha. Ken as always, the best LA guide EVER. He brought my sister, bro-in-law, Hui and I out for a whole day. Xie xie oh! That's CheeShan and I on the San Fran tram looking tourist-y. I didnt quite like SF since the weather there was cold and foggy... I half-expected it to be sunny and warm, but all I got was Boston-ish weather. Boo! I only found out that SF is the world's foggiest city after I met up with Slin on my last day there.
 
Las Vegas- This was the most relaxing and entertaining part of the trip. Hui and I spent 3 days/nights exploring the Strip and we practically went into 90% of all the hotels on the new Strip. We had the Wynn, Bellagio and Caesar's buffet, along with nice eats at MGM Grand, Bellagio and Paris. We had this thing whereby we spent $1 at every hotel that we entered to play the 1-cent slots. Hahaha! It was most hilarious as we'd cash out when we made an extra $1. Our grand total winnings? -$10. Boo! I put another $50 down at the pai-gaow poker, and it was gone in an hour or so. Thanks to Slin and Ken, I also agree that pai-gaow gives you the longest and probably best run for the money in Vegas. We caught Ka which was magnificient... and also caught Blue Man Group which was the most disappointing, pathetic and money-wasting show in the whole of Vegas. Christopher Lee- thanks to your recommendation, we wasted 3 hours watching three nutcases doing something pointless. Haha.. its ok lah, all part of the excitiment of Vegas.
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| End of the Road
Today marks my last "official" day at Tufts. My parents are flying in as we speak and I'll be picking them up from the airport in roughyl 14 hours from now. Wow, time really flies when you have nothing to do on campus! In a blink of an eye, the entire senior week flew by and for the most part, I was stuck in my room, sick. Bleh. Although I missed most of the events, I guess being sick has its perks- I get time to myself to reflect about the past four years, and it forced me to slow down my schedule and finally made me spend some much needed time with God. Since the end of the school year, I've been running around like a madman, meeting people and spending quality time with a lot of good friends, both at Tufts and elsewhere. I've always wanted to get a day off to relax, but I never did.. until two days ago when I came down with the dreaded flu. Its amazing what you are capable of remembering when you spend one day lying in bed. I remembered my days when I graduated from HS in 2001, I kinda relived the europhia of the moment and then I remembered the extreme sadness when I went into the army. I also relived the moment when I was released from camp and took the flight to Boston. The different episodes of my life just went on and on, like a movie screening of my past 5-6 years in review. There was so much that happened during that time and after it all, it was finally time for me to thank God for everything that has happened. Its simply amazing to realize that this Sunday will mark the end of my life as a student.... it marks the end of something that I've lived with for 24 years, and the next step will be into the working world, or into the Big Unknown. I never really figured how significant this was until I was lying in bed with my sore throat and blocked nose last night. And what can I say about all of this? I thank God for seeing me through this past 24 years, and I'm looking forward to the next phase of my life!
I really want to give a big shout out to my suitemates and Andrew, Wana, Rae and Joy for checking up on me to make sure I'm ok during this time. It meant a lot to me that they still remembered to call me even when they were out having a blast during senior week. Mucho love!
Now pictures of the only main event that I attended during senior week: Red Sox Game at Fenway Park! Hahaha, it was awesome to finally enter the stadium and to watch Dice-K Matsuzaka pitch! I was there when he pitched his first complete game in the MLB! I probably caught the flu while I was at Fenway, but it was an experience that was really neat and a nice way to sum up my time in Boston.
 
 
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| Final Finals - 19 days left
Halfway done with finals, and less than 3 weeks before leaving Boston for good. I've done some reflecting lately and I've come to realize a few things. I dont think I will miss Boston very much, its a pretty city and all but I really dont think I'll miss walking around Newbury or in Porter/Harvard Sq. I dont think I'll miss the wind and snow... sometimes putting on the layers is fun, but sometimes when you have to drag yourself out of bed for a 930am class, it kinda sucks. But I also know what I'll miss: I'll miss my Tufts friends; I'll miss the College group and I'll miss Highrock community. As I shared at prayer meeting yesterday, I learned that I treasure close groups of friends, more than anything else. I could be in the most beautiful city in the world, but I dont think I'll be happy if I werent with good friends. Conversely, Boston isn't all the fantastic, but I'll bring back good memories because of the friends that I've made over the past 4 years.Another thing I'll miss, my good ol' SAS friends. You guys rock! I'll see you guys when I get the chance to fly to the States. You guys better go visit your parents in Asia too.. hehe, and then find an excuse to fly to Singapore to meet me!
Well, I'm getting ready to leave Tufts and the beautiful Sophia Gordon dorm. Over the next couple of days, I'll be packing up my barang barang (malay for stuff) and have them all shipped back to Singapore. I cant believe four years of Tufts is over. I still remember coming here in 2003, fresh out of the army! That was the best time of my life. Now that I'm going home, its another exciting time. NO MORE SCHOOL! Oh yeaaah...
Alright, almost time to party... just a few more papers to go.
YEAH SENIORS! Woohoo! Class of 07... and one from the ages, NYC Thanksgiving Trip 03.
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