redeclipse

2005-05-31T18:27:00.000-07:00

The things I found in San Francisco...

2005-05-31T18:26:00.000-07:00

the city of San Francisco, as seen from the Twin Peaks. The bridge on the right is the Bay Bridge which leads to Berkeley!

2005-05-31T18:25:00.000-07:00

no no... i'm not a flowers kinda guy... but here's a rose from the rose garden in the Golden Gate Park.. =) lovely ain't it?

2005-05-31T18:24:00.000-07:00

guess what i found in SF? A little Japanese garden! Wowee!

2005-05-31T18:23:00.000-07:00

the picture of serenity

2005-05-31T18:20:00.000-07:00

the famous Golden Gate Bridge (which technically isn't golden...)

who am I?

2005-05-29T16:27:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share a song with you that we sang during our Singcell worship time. It's called "Who am I" by Casting crowns. The lyrics of the song really spoke to me, for it reminded me of the "unequal-ness" of our relationship with God, that he would care to love each and every one of us, that he would care to know us be name, that he would be near whenever we call out to him...

Who am I
by Casting Crowns

Who am I, that the Lord of all the earth
Would care to know my name
Would care to feel my hurt
Who am I, that the Bright and Morning Star
Would choose to light the way
For my ever wandering heart

Not because of who I am
But because of what You've done
Not because of what I've done
But because of who You are

I am a flower quickly fading
Here today and gone tomorrow
A wave tossed in the ocean
A vapor in the wind
Still You hear me when I'm calling
Lord, You catch me when I'm falling
And You've told me who I am... I am Yours

Who am I, that the eyes that see my sin
Would look on me with love
and watch me rise again
Who am I, that the voice that calmed the sea
Would call out through the rain
And calm the storm in me

I am Yours,
Whom shall I fear?
Whom shall I fear?
'Cause I am Yours,
I am Yours.

2005-05-29T16:20:00.000-07:00

Dusk at Sausalito - it's amazing when you're sitting there, staring out in the vast expense of the ocean that stretches as far as the eye can see. Yet, the ocean moves with a rhythm of its own, crashing against the rocks below with a force and regularity that seems to have no origin...

a long awaited return...

2005-05-27T22:11:00.000-07:00

After much persuasion, I decided to take up blogging again. (oh.. and since we are talking about things that we haven't done in a long while.. i must say that I have yet to swim at the Avery Aquatic Center here at Stanford... aiyee..) So spring break was fun - we went to sequoia and yosemite, went up to SF several times to eat Dim Sum and had the chance to send off a dear friend of ours.

And then came Spring Quarter. Due to some pleasantly surprising circumstances, I decided to take a lighter courseload, and yeah, it's been really good fun. Somehow, times seems to go by really quickly. And then you are seized by the sudden realisation that some of the dudes that you hang out with won't be around any more next year! A friend remarked that I still have "Madrid Hangover"... perhaps she's right.. those were fun *hic* times...

But yes, time rushes on, relentless in its passing, leaving us to grab on to the people, places and memories that flash by us... Still, I guess that's what makes life so precious, that you only have one chance at it. Russel Crowe said that what you do today echoes in eternity. Rick Warren echoes a similar sentiment framed from the Christian perspective. He said that how you live your life here on earth today will determine where you spend the rest of your life in eternity. I couldn't agree more.

I'm reminded of a verse, one of my favourites..

Micah 6:8
"And what does the Lord require of you?
To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."

2005-05-27T14:54:00.000-07:00

Yeah, it's been a while hasn't it? Man.. what can I say? It's been a really busy but blessed couple of months =) Thanks to y'all for bugging me about updating.. Here's a shot from a beach that we chanced upon... pretty surreal huh?

2005-05-27T14:51:00.000-07:00

Here's a picture of a lovely (in my opinion) sunset along Highway 1 (aka the Pacific Coast Highway) God makes beautiful sunsets, doesn't He?

2005-03-19T17:51:00.000-08:00

Finals are over!! Man... it was a long dark and dreary week, but thank the Lord for strength! Don't know how they'll go though.. but it's all in His hands! (Yes, I know, it's a crappy title for my white board.. but hey.... ) Spring break is finally here.

2005-03-19T17:49:00.000-08:00

Oh, and while on the topic of school, did i mention that I think I go to the most beautiful school in the world? The other day, I overheard that Stanford has the second largest campus in the whole world - second only to this university in Russia! Woweee!

the blog that writes itself??

2005-03-15T22:50:00.000-08:00

man. i just had to post this one - this is a blog that is totally generated by a robot that has passed an "unofficial Turing test"!! Do you know what that means??? *gasp* Think I, Robot.

Have a look:
R. Robot is Making Sense

P.S. you can type in your name and get some pretty interesting results too!
P.P.S look under March 15, "Wildly, the Leftoids Corrupt". Looks like redeclipse's coming under some fire here.

Korean dish 'may cure bird flu'

2005-03-14T10:59:00.000-08:00

Better go get your kimchi!

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Korean dish 'may cure bird flu'

in the midst of finals... groan...

glass balls revisited

2005-03-12T00:45:00.000-08:00

okay whew... just finished my philosophy paper on Hume's skepticism about reasoning and belief (Treatise 1.4.1, if anyone's interested) - i actually like writing philosophy papers. I complain like carzy when I have to do it, but I think it's an immensely satisfying process. It's like baking a cake, or preparing dinner (note to self: sound less domesticated when typing blog, raises manliness quotient), cos you agonise over how you want to order your points, to structure your arguments, how to get a dialectic going between the rivalling view points, etc. and not to mention the hair-tearing moments when you just cannot express yourself the way that you want to.

Ah yes, I love philosophy. Ah, the pain.

Anyhow, the point of this blog was about glass balls. Rather than an obscure reference to Mr. Indra and gypsies riding bicycles, this is in reference to a puzzle that i posted in the last blog.

Here it is once again:
You have two (2) identical glass balls and a 100-storey building. If you drop such a ball from the a certain floor, it might break (obviously, if it breaks when dropped from the ith floor, it will also break when dropped from all floors above it. You have to find such a floor that the balls do not break when dropped from the floors below it, but do break when dropped from it and floors above it. You may expend both balls. What is the minimum number of drops you will have to make?

The answer is quite amazing - you might be thinking 2^n and all, but the official solution has a definite algorithm which is seriously quite elegant. I posed it to my brothers Shaowei and Joel today over lunch, and before I had begun on my spring roll, they had got the answer. Man, these guys....

For those of you who have found the solution, here are some interesting questions that came out as a result of our geeky lunch discussion:

0. Is this solution necessarily optimal?

1. It is obvious to note that we can easily generalise this game to any particular n storey building. What if we had 3 glass balls instead? Would we use a modified version of the same algorithm, or would we use something totally different?

2. What if we had infinite glass balls? What would be the optimum solution then? log n solution?

Oh and if you managed to read up till this point, here's a little hint - for the 100 storey building, you can always find out exactly which floor the glass ball breaks in 14 tries or less. *gasp* 14??

enjoy.

next week - the L-shaped puzzle!

glass balls

2005-03-10T21:44:00.000-08:00

Yes, it's finals week, and yes, i'm swamped with tons of things to do. Here's a quick rundown:

Logic problem set (big)
Ethics Paper on Kant (who's German and writes really long sentences)
Hume Paper on skepticism of deductive reasoning
Iran Paper (on Reza Shah's Social reforms)
Ethics take home final (on how to be a good person, really struggling here.. =))
Hume take home final
Logic take home final (help help!)
Set Theory final (intersection and union stuff... so they say)

Spring break never looked so far away...

Still, being the ultimate procrastinator, I just needed to post this on the website. It was a brain teaser that my good friends Kah Keng and Kah Seng got for one of their interviews... it took me forever to figure it out (well... i guess i eventually googled it, but hey... i tot about it for many a shower)

Here it is: You have two (2) identical glass balls and a 100-storey building. If you drop such a ball from the a certain floor, it might break (obviously, if it breaks when dropped from the ith floor, it will also break when dropped from all floors above it. You have to find such a floor that the balls do not break when dropped from the floors below it, but do break when dropped from it and floors above it. You may expend both balls. What is the minimum number of drops you will have to make?

The solution was cool. Way cool.

That's why I'm a math major (or at least trying to be lah.. if stanford let me graduate)

Till the end of the finals.

productivity

2005-02-28T00:48:00.000-08:00

oh man, this was like the most unproductive weekend - combination of lethargy, xbox, errands to run, xbox, general intertia (GI) and xbox. And we are now on the brink of another crazy week with 0 work done. Hmm. Where did the weekend disappear to???

Here we go.

Crabboil!

2005-02-27T21:57:00.000-08:00

The highlight of my weekend was, without a doubt, jointly killing 32 crabs with bros Joel, Shaowei and Gareth. Yup, that's one off my "To do" list. So two dear friends - Siew Ying and Nathaniel Rice - are graduating this quarter (We're gonna miss you guys!), and so Glen and Paula (our Chi-Alpha pastors) organised a crabboil (can I hear a "booyah!"?) in honour of them. Glen and Paula are from Springfield, Missouri, and they know how to make good crab. Mmm.

Hence our killing spree. It was good fun. The crabs were humongous though - dungeness crabs and they were in season! We dunked the crabs in while they were still alive, oblivious of the watery fate that was to befall them. And we threw in some potatoes and corn for company. The masses were fed and all was good. As I was driving to church this morning, I was kinda thinking about the crab (and carb) from the crabboil night..... woweee.

And isn't it a conincidence that "crab" and "carb" are one swapped letter apart? Most intriguing.

Here are some photos for evidence. =) Man. I think my fingers still smell of crab!

2005-02-27T21:26:00.000-08:00

The crabs waiting in my pastor's bathtub. I always knew there was something fishy about that guy..... Imagine taking a shower with these dudes. Uhuh.

2005-02-27T21:24:00.000-08:00

Here's looking at you Mister! - Joel's fingers on my crab. It was delicious. Mmm....

2005-02-27T21:19:00.000-08:00

the brothers 3 have finally found their meaning in life.... and it comes from Springfield, Missouri. =) To each his own (crab).

2005-02-27T21:17:00.000-08:00

The belly-happy-crabby-bunch!

2005-02-23T17:46:00.000-08:00

View from the dome of St. Peter's in the Vatican. Gorgeous ain't it? So a little history here - the dome was the only part of St. Peter's that was designed by Michalangelo. The rest of it was desigend by Bernini, who designed the colonnade to represent two outstretched arms welcoming weary pilgrims who travelled thousands of miles to come to St. Peter's. The view was breathtaking. Best part about the trip was Rom-ing around with my best bud Kenneth whom i've known for ages. And the gelato. Mmm.

EPIC 2014

2005-02-23T15:07:00.000-08:00

here's something that a friend forwarded to me. Have a glimpse into the future of the fourth estate.

http://www.broom.org/epic/

Rather chilling won't you say?

i show you singapore sun

2005-02-22T10:01:00.000-08:00

yawn. Am really bored. A friend of mine came online and the conversation went somewhat like this:

friend: eh, I show you something
me: okay!
(friend turns on webcam, accepted. Connection is established and webcam shows a picture of his room in Singapore, with bright sunlight streaming in through the window)
me: okay... so what am i supposed to be seeing?
friend: i show you singapore sun
me: uhuh.....
friend: bet you miss it don't you?
me: well...
friend: next time i bring a bowl of laksa to show you...
me: well..... i guess thanks for making me feel jealous
(end conversation)

I guess I didn't have the heart to tell him that 1. I actually go to school in California, and 2. that I just got back from a morning in the sun playing frisbee. But thank God for great friends all the same =)

Was staring at my math problem set - so you know how in the problems they have names like Alice, Betty and Cindy, or Adam, Bob and Charles, that kind of stuff. So this class, i've been having the weirdest names - Mr. Gorgonzola, Mr. Fonebone and Mr. Zanzibar Buck-buck McFate.

Haha. And you thought math makes people weird.

2005-02-21T22:10:00.000-08:00

And here's that picture that I talked about earlier - Dusk from the Charles Bridge, Prague. Ah europe, how I miss thee...

2005-02-21T22:08:00.000-08:00

Singaporean Ski Team at Heavenly, Lake Tahoe. Here's to yet another "totally awesome, dude" ride.

2005-02-21T22:02:00.000-08:00

Lunch on the slopes - me, my board and a squished ham and cheese.

the return of the blog(ger)

2005-02-21T12:53:00.000-08:00

Man, it's been like 7 weeks since I last posted? Wow... various people have been bugging me about updating my blog and all.. and I have steadfastly refused - my reason being that "hey, Madrid was so much more interesting, we were actually doing stuff.. but over here at Stanford, I mean it's just problem sets after problem sets... i mean I could tell you about Mills and Bentham, Hume's infinite divisibility arguments and why Reza Shah was exiled in 1941, but i'm not too sure if you're keen on that kinda stuff. =)

But in the end I decided to acquiesce. I guess I really don't like reading Kant.

So the blog's got a new design, a revamp if you wanna think about it that way, or should I say a mid-life upgrade (in navyspeak). Will be trying to post pictures and all that other good stuff so stay tuned. I might even go back and post pictures from the Europe trip and stuff. There's one particularly stunning picture (if I may say so myself) that was taken on the Charles' Bridge at dusk when we were in Prague. I'll see if I can get that one up.

So it's President's Day weekend over here = we get Monday off, which I promptly spent playing frisbee with a bunch of guys on the Oval. Thank God for the great weather - it was like raining every single day the past week, and I was itching to get outside and toss a little. After like 5 min into the game, Kevin Siew and I agreed that we were way out of shape. Haha. But it was good fun all the same. Afterall, as one famous mathematician said, "this is California". Haha

My President's Day resolution: to be faithful(er?) in blogging. Haha. So there.

a song to share

2005-01-02T16:22:00.000-08:00

wanted to share this song with you guys... you know, it being the end/start of the year, and me being all sentimental and new age and all. Actually, this song came to mind when Kenneth and I were wondering around Rome and we chanced upon this military band that was playing crowd favourites in some piazza... it's by Louis Armstrong, a song about how wonderful the world is, some that that would be good to remind ourselves once in a while, no?

What A Wonderful World

I see trees of green........ red roses too
I see ’em bloom..... for me and for you
And I think to myself.... what a wonderful world.

I see skies of blue..... clouds of white
Bright blessed days....dark sacred nights
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world.

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are also on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin’.. how do you do
They’re really sayin’......i love you.

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
They’ll learn much more.....than I’ll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world

The colors of a rainbow.....so pretty ..in the sky
Are there on the faces.....of people ..going by
I see friends shaking hands.....sayin’.. how do you do
They’re really sayin’... I ....love....you.

I hear babies cry...... I watch them grow
You know their gonna learn
A whole lot more than I’ll never know
And I think to myself .....what a wonderful world
Yes I think to myself .......what a wonderful world.

God bless

Regreso a Singapur!

2005-01-02T16:05:00.000-08:00

hello everyone! guess who's in da haus?

yup, so I rolled into Singapore last evening.. still jet-lagging a little, but all's good. No really trying hard to adjust to Singapre time either, cos in 3 days i'm flying out to SFO again. It's times like these that I feel that my body is one big rubber band - in the metaphoric sense of course.

Anyhow, leaving Madrid was hard - I have really grown to love the city and definitely would like to go back there someday. Not just because I had a lot of fun or travelled a whole lot, but there's really something about the Spanish culture and way of life that's so attractive. Hmm.

Flew into Heathrow with a 4 hour layover. Toyed with the idea of coming out to grab some "stir fry beef horfun" at the legendary Wong Kei, but decided against it. London was, as usual, raining and dreary. And guess what? I had bangers and mash on the BA flight. Mmmmm.

I don't know if it's the same for you guys, but I love flying into Singapre - at least the last 1 hour of it, not the 12 hours before that. There's this sense of excitement that fills me everytime I see like ships plying along the straits or see oil refineries at the tip of Singapore or something. The joys of being home.

And of course, there's the fish head curry.

And my good ole bed.

Yawn.

Merry Christmas!

2004-12-24T10:02:00.000-08:00

Here's wishing one and all a Merry Merry Christmas, and may the joy of the Lord be with you all this festive season and may his good blessings be with you and your families in the year to come.

God Bless.

(posting from Vienna, where it is absolutely lovely during this Christmas season..... and absolutely cold too... and that's where the mulled wine comes in... mmm)

¡Ole!

2004-12-17T02:28:00.000-08:00

just finished the last exam for the semester - historia del arte. And my head is now reeling with Titian and Goya, El Escorial and St. Peter's in the Vatican, Velázquez, Peter Paul Reubens and Pablo Ruiz Picasso, the Spanish Reconquista and the Alhambra, Venus of Nido, Milo and Willendorf and the Naked Maja. Whee!

it has been a wonderful semester - thank the Lord for his safety and protection these couple of months. There were many low points of course - sleeping on benches in San Sebestian, or walking 40 km in the rain in Galicia - but even these turn bittersweet on hindsight. I have really grown to love Spain, its way of life and its people. I'm gonna miss this place.

But lo, what light through yonder window breaks? Tis the East...

And now Prague beckons. We leave on Sunday.

The only thing that stands in our way is a mountain of laundry that threatens to derail all that we have planned. Sounds a little like Don Quijote, no?

... and her name is Rome...

2004-12-12T06:32:00.000-08:00

so last weekend, for my final conquest, I decided to pay a visit to the city of seven hills, the seat of the empire that spanned all of the known world - Rome. And who else to go Rome-ing than my best buddy of 13 years - Kenneth Wong! Yes, And I must say, that I really love Rome - it is a truly amazing city. (okay okay, sorry about the bad joke / false expectations from the previous blog. Must scandalous a bit mah...)

More about Rome in a couple of days though - the finals *gulp* beckon. Now to pay the price for playing too much... but seriously, once finals are over, I´m going be sad to leave this place. It has been a wonderful semester, and I have really grown to love Spain, its people and its ways of life... anyhow, along with the theme of Rome, I shall leave you guys with this quote:

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?"

brb

an announcement

2004-12-09T06:10:00.000-08:00

just wanted to let you all know... that I fell in love.

Brrrrrlin!

2004-11-29T06:31:00.000-08:00

So I'm really sorry that I ever complained about the weather in Madrid. Just got back from Berlin this past weekend - and boy, it was cold!! The winds were just whipping right through us. Brrrrr.

Anyhow, we had a great time in Germany - we had arranged to meet up with our dear brother Shaowei Lin, and we decided Berlin cos 1) it was midway between Madrid and Budapest and 2) because Shaowei's long lost uncle Ber Lin lived there. So.

I must say that I'm really impressed by Berlin - it truly is a beautiful and vibrant city. As Wenzheng elegantly put it, "The old buildings are nice... and the new buidlings are nice too!" Yup, couldn't agree more. In addition to the stately buildings of the Reichstag, the Staatsrat (Council of State) and the Palace of the Republic, the new buildings designed by world-renown architects such as I.M. Pei are everywhere. One can literally feel the pulse of that city beating strongly despite the frigid weather.

We went to visit the Reichstag, which was the seat of the German government. In history class, we learnt that the Reichstag was burnt down in a terrible fire on the 27th of February 1993, and Hitler used this event to declare a state of emergency and seize emergency powers to arrest without trial. The rest, they say is history. Now, an awe-inspiring glass dome designed by architect Sir Norman Foster sits on top of the Reichstag, which allows visitors to walk up to the very top giving a panaromic view of the sprawling city.

The other thing that Berlin is (arguably) most famous for is the Berlin Wall, the physical manifestation of the former ideological chasm between the East and the West. We learnt about the attempts by people in East Berlin to cross the wall, their success and the failures all chronicled in the museum that now stands at the spot which was known as the "death strip" - the few hundred feet that escapees needed to cross to make it to freedom.

What really struck me was the plight of the people - caught in the middle of an ideological war between powers that they had never seen, over issues they had no idea about. All they wanted to do is to find a way to seek out better opportunities for themselves, to be reunited with family members, to visit a mother, brother or uncle who was sick on the other side of the wall. And how even that was denied to them. Yet in the midst of it all, it was heartening to see how ordinary men and women would repeatedly risk their lives to help others escape, simply because they cared.

I had similar sentiments when I went to visit the Sachsenhausen Memorial and Museum (formerly one of the largest concentration camps during the Third Reich) outside Berlin. There was a certain stillness, a perceptible staleness, that stood in stark contrast to the former going-ons in this place. A solemn obelisk stands at the apex of the triangular camp grounds, in honour of those who passed through the gates of Sachsenhausen, bidding us to remember all that happened here.

On a lighter note, the cold winds gave us the perfect excuse to chomp down on the famous German pasteries. Mmmm.. I think we ate like 10 of them each or something like that... really nice and sweet-to-the-point-of-over-the top pasteries. Somehow, when you're chomping on something, the winds don't seem to bother you. Yup. And of course the famous German sausages - man we saw these 1/2 metre sausages! Goodness, i bet like the ends of the sausage can pretty much be in two different time zones! But on a cold, frigid night, nothing beats a steaming hot sausage... ... okay I guess I can think of a couple of things that could... but you know what i mean yah?

Okie, that's it for Berlin - Guess where I'm going this weekend?

yawn

2004-11-24T06:25:00.000-08:00

This certainly is one of those I-have-a-ton-of-things-to-do-but-i-don´t-feel-like-doing-them days. Hrm. So I shall blog. Went to watch Real Madrid play Bayer Leverkusen last night with wenshan and her friend. It was seriously one of the most exciting matches that i´ve watched so far... and possibly one of our last matches at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. *sob sob*. It was a good match. Bayer are a cracking team. Excellent teamwork, solid in defence and all. Real - the usual flair and heartstopping one-touch play. Real went down by one early in the game, and boy, they fought back with a vengence. You could really feel that they wanted the equaliser so bad. Final score 1-1. I felt that Real deserved to win. Wenzheng thought otherwise. At any rate, we went to San Gines for Chocolate con Churros. The world faded away.

I should really stop going to that chocolate *hic* place.

why I travel

2004-11-23T08:00:00.000-08:00

On the flight back from Geneva, I chanced upon this article in the Iberia fight magazine about travelling that I wanted to share with you. Once in a while, one chances upon a piece of writing, or even a couple of lines that captures exactly how you´re feeling at that point in time. And this was it for me. It was an article written by Moníca Sánchez Lázaro for Iberia:

"We will not be the same again. We shall have gained a baggage which does not have to be checked in, and now accompanies us inevitably... And we shall remain in a state of amazement at that precise and irrevocable moment of our lives, living in transit, always a little different to ourselves, and pointing like little children at the texture of a cloud..."

en español

"No volveremos a ser los mismos. Habremos ganado ese equipaje que no se factura y que inevitablemente ya nos acompaña... Y permaneceremos en el asombro, en ese preciso e irrevocable minuto de nuestra vida, existiendo en este tránsito, un poquito diferentes a nosotros mismos, señalando como niño la textura de una nube..."

God bless

light clear see bottom

2004-11-23T07:17:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, after a frantic week of midterms, we headed off to the beautiful city of Geneva. Apparently, "Geneva" in español is "Ginebra", which actually can be translated into "gin" of the good ole "Gin and Tonic" fame. So if you´re ever in España and you want some G&T... you know what to do.

First thing that we did was to go visit the United Nations Headquarters and the International Red Cross Headquarters. We found out the the much quoted Geneva Convention and the founding of the Red Cross go a long way back. Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross movement, was moved by the number of wounded that he saw during the battle of Solferino to establish some "international principle, sanctioned by a convention and inviolate in character... which might constitued the basis for societies for the relief of the wounded". This soon led to the Geneva Convention in 1864, providing for the victims of conflict and proctecting medical personnel involved in humanitarian work. The symbol of the "red cross" or "red crescent" on white background, often worn on the left arm, has now become the universal symbol for medical aid.

Arguably, Geneva has the most famous safety valve in the world - the Jet d´Eau, named so because Geneva is the French-speaking area of the Switzerland. Originally, this fountain was a little "leak" in a pipe, causing a minuature fountain of a couple of metres. Today, the fountain pumps 500 litres per second, and tourists (like us) would fly in from all parts of the world to see this pipe which sprung a 140m leak. Ahuh. In the afternoon, we took a walk along Lake Geneva, which is one of the most beautiful lakes I have ever seen. The paragon of tranquility. The water literally is "light clear see bottom" or ching1 che4 jian4 di3. (If you don´t get this, don´t fret, it´s just that I have poor han4yu3 pin1yin1. If you didn´t get that either, ah, just move on and leave me to wallow in self pity.)

On the spur of the moment, we decided to go ice skating. We´re both not big fans of ice skaing, but it was there, so we did it, and boy did we have a good time skidding around and trying not to bang into people too much. With the beautiful Swiss mountains all around, Lake Geneva and the Jet d´Eau to our back, it was simply perfect.

Going to Ruin(s)

2004-11-23T06:42:00.000-08:00

whew. sorry for not posting for so long. it has been busy busy busy. Still have more grad school apps to tie down, but i though i´d take a break and just catch up with the blogging before the weight of memory gets too overwhelming. =)

The weekend after my father was here in Madrid, we decided to head eastwards to Athens - we had heard so much about Athens and the Early Greek civilisation - in our history and art history classes, learning about the mathematical genius of the Parthenon and the Erectheion, the far reaching infuences of classical Greek civilisation, Plato, Aristotle, Scorates, Pythagoras and all. And we were there. Standing right in front of the Parthenon under the scorching Greek sun was awe-inspiring. Firstly because it had been raining pretty much most of the past two weeks in Madrid, so any sun was nice and for another because the Parthenon was really quite impressive. We learn that the Greeks had made the corner columns of the Parthenon pointing inwards to create the visual effect that the columns were straight when viewed from the center. Some counteract-visual-distortion thing I suppose. The columns were also of different thickness and of different spacing, so as to achieve the overall visual impact of harmony and balance. Uhuh. Walking among the ruins was quite an overwhelming experience, cos you realised that this was the very spot that was the center of Greek life in the Acropolis 3000 years ago. Wow.

Day Two saw us going up to Thessaloniki, where Alexander the Great of Macedonia was supposed to have began his conquest. Nothing much there in the Second City of the Byzantine Empire, but we realised that we were not too far away from Shaowei in Budapest.

Day Three we went to look up the Oracle at Delphi, cos I had some toughies on my recent math problem set. Apparently, the Oracle was a middle aged woman who, according to the legend, sat by a chasm and inhaled the fumes coming out from the mountain, got high, and gave prophecies. (Wait, haven´t I seen this somewhere before?). Beautiful ruins of the Greek theatre and stadium, set against the face of Mount Parnassus. No chasm though. Hrm.

Best thing about Greece for us was the Gyros. ¡Muy muy muy delicioso! For only 1.50€, they were simply totally awesome. Like seriously. Hot, toasty pita bread with succulent pieces of lamb, sour cream, freshest tomatoes and lettuce...... ¡mama mia! Wenzheng and I were taken. Right there, right then. The dark clouds parted, the rain went away and the glorious rays poured through the ashen skies once again. Okay, I exaggerate - but man, it was good. Wenzheng and I were so enamoured with the humble gyro that we were consuming them voraciously - we each had 10 Gyros before we could return to Madrid with our heads held high. Mmm. Now for some good ole kebab...

p.s. for the uninitiated, the Gyros (scientific name: gyros cheapus inathenus) is from the same family and genus as the kebab (scientific name: kababus goodaswellus). Origins of this family of foods is from the Eastern Byzantine Empire. It is closely related to the simple sandwichus ordinarius and has long disowned the burgus fattyus because of undisclosed reasons.

-excerpt from the Dictionary of Gastronomical Delights

con tarde

2004-11-17T04:11:00.000-08:00

wow, it´s been 13 days since I posted - and it certainly has been a busy couple of weeks. It started with my dad dropping by on his business trip to Frankfurt, then we headed East to Athens, back on Tuesday, started preparing grad school applications and all, then my good friend Boonbu dropped in from the North, took him around, and now it´s midterms week, before we fly off the Geneva. Whew.

Anyhow, apologies for not posting earlier. I realise how much freer I was at the start of the quarter than I am now. But oh well, will promise to post soon - oh and we´re watching España versus Inglaterra (Spain vs England) in a friendly game. Hopefully will get to see Wayne Rooney and co. with Beckham and Owen up against Iker Casillas. Hmm.

spanish lección 3 - stopping the water

2004-11-04T06:04:00.000-08:00

In line with the rainy season here in Madrid, we were learning about the weather and all that in Spanish class, and we learnt how to say umbrella in Spanish - "paraguas". This was really interesting, cos "para" means "to stop" in Spanish, and "agua" means "water". So "paraguas" really means to "stop water". Makes so much sense yah? I wonder what it means to "um" the "brella" ??

rain rain rain rain rain

2004-11-04T05:48:00.000-08:00

So you can probably tell what´s been rubbing me the wrong way these couple of days. Yup, Madrid´s having its rainy spell (and to think that some of my friends are labouring under the misconception that i´m actually enjoying myself in sunny Madrid! ¡Qué idea!) Best part about it was that Wenzheng and I decided to do our laundry and hang it out last night, and woke up this morning to the wonderful sound of the rain. Haha. Still, thank God for the rain and the beauty of His creation. Amen?

So I stayed in Madrid this past weekend. *gasp* Yup, my dad was on a business trip to Frankfurt, so he decided to pop over and make sure that I wasn´t living in some ramshackle cabin eating mouldy bread for dinner. Haha. Anyhow, had a good time meeting up with him and just walking around Madrid for a bit - doing a little of my tour guide duties. It was a good break, staying at home and taking it easy. Ah.

In the midst of trying to plan for the winter break holidays, the coming holiday to Greece, do homework, apply for grad school and all. So I apologise for the short and tardy update. Yikes. I leave for Greece in a few hours.

Take care everyone! A quote that I heard once:
"Don't frown upon a sour lemon; Squeeze it into lemonade!"

but wait, aren´t lemons supposed to be sour? Precisely so. =)

spanish lección 2

2004-10-27T02:52:00.000-07:00

Something nifty that I learnt in Spanish class today: you know the word "dormitory"? Typical university/college housing and all where people spend most of their time sleeping/trashed. In Spanish, it´s "dormitorio", which actually comes from the root word "dormir" - which means "to sleep". Way cool huh!

proudly brought to you by the letters E, S, P and the numero 1

googly goolgy goo

2004-10-27T02:48:00.000-07:00

To all you gmail users (and non-gmail users):

If you thought gmail was way cool, check out what google has in store

http://desktop.google.com

Google Away.

Standing at the edge of the world

2004-10-27T02:44:00.000-07:00

Wanted to write a little something about the edge of the world – it seems like the ancients were terribly fascinated by the “end of the world”. When I was in Cornwall this past summer, I was in a town called Penzance (of the Pirates of Penzance fame) which was a stone’s throw away from Land’s End, the very westernmost (and southernmost I believe) tip of England. Just a couple of weeks back, when Wenzheng and I were in Santiago, there was this place called Finisterra (“finis” means “end” and “terra” means “land”) because to the Romans this was the edge of the world known to them.

The myth behind the Rock of Gibraltar is that it was one of the pillars the Hercules placed, declaring “Non Plus Ultra” or “No land further”. Then Christopher Columbus came along and it was promptly renamed “Plus Ultra”. Watched the sunset over the Atlas Mountains of Africa, its rays piercing the fog that clung to the mountain peaks, sending shimmers over the Mediterranean. Beautiful.

The Rock

2004-10-27T02:37:00.000-07:00

This weekend, we decided to take a trip to British soil. Best part about it was that we didn't even have to leave the Iberian peninsular. Yup, I'm taking about "The Rock" - otherwise known as Gibraltar. I mean, with Singapore being referred to as the "Gilbraltar of the East", surely we've needed to pay a visit to the "Singapore of the West".

Gibraltar is situated at the Southern tip of Spain, occupying a grand total of 6.5 square km. Yet, the history that lies behind this country goes way beyond its land area. Commanding a strategic position not only at the mouth of 2 oceans, but also at the intersection of 2 continents, the Straits of Gibraltar was the entryway to the Mediterranean, and has played a crucial role in countless wars. Ceded to the British under the Treaty of Utrecht at the end of the War of Spanish Succession, Gibraltar has since been one of the last remaining colonies of the empire on which the sun never set. Spain tried for several years to regain Gibraltar – closing off the border, stopping food and water, messing with the phone lines and all, but the Gibraltarians remained fiercely loyal to the Crown.

It’s interesting that the border that separates Spain and Gibraltar is called (by the Spanish at least) La Linea de la Concepcion or “The Line of the Conception”. Any guesses why? The answer in a moment. =)

Seriously, Gibraltar deserves its name “The Rock” – it really is humongous. We took a cable car up to the top where we got an awesome view of the surrounding lands for miles. The most interesting part of the trip was walking through the Siege Tunnels. Between 1779 and 1783, the French and the Spanish laid siege to the Rock in an attempt to regain it. In defense, the British dug a tunnel network that would allow them call for cannon fire down upon the lines of trenches of French and Spanish soldiers, hence “La Linea”. It is amazing when you think of how long that 50km long tunnel system must have took.

The only problem then for the British was that they couldn’t fire their cannons from their vantage point down on the trenches – because if they pointed the cannon downwards, the cannon ball would roll out! The solution was a downward pointing cannon called the Depression Gun. I thought that was pretty funny – something that fires on people and make them depressed? I guess if you were a Spanish or French soldier in your trench and suddenly these cannon balls start flying at you from out of the mountain, you would be pretty depressed.

Ah yes, fish and chips – who could forget about the quintessential British dish? Mmmm, reminded me of my awesome stint with the RN this past summer – bangers and mash for breakfast everyday. Uhuh. Oh, and if anyone’s going up to Scotland, I would recommend this totally “wicked” fish and chips place – it’s called the Blue Lagoon, this chain of little stores that serves cracking fish and chips, soaking in oil and grease and what have you. Just thinking about it makes my right arm start to feel clogged up. So bad, but oh so good. =)

2004-10-20T07:23:00.000-07:00

So after promises of a free dinner, incessant cajoling and a couple of drinks, I managed to get a guest writer (woohoo!) to grace this website with his thoughts. No prizes for guessing who. =)

Enjoy.

It was one sleepy friday morning, my eyes glazed over from 7 hours of the disconcerting combination of sleep and drowsy awakness accumulated over the overnight bus ride from Madrid, my feet trudging slowly into the metro station outside which I had spent the last 10 minutes waiting for the stroke of 6:30 a.m. that would flip the sign that said "Metro Closed" to "Open", that i fell in love. More specifically, I was standing at the Metro ticket counter and I had opened my eyes in an instant of stunned delight to see a beautiful Portuguese lady showing me a list of various Metro tickets I could buy. She was smiling, pointing, gesturing, and speaking. And her voice - it was music to my ears. Instantly, my heavy eyelids flung open, adrenaline rushed though my veins and instantly the drowsiness in my brain lifted. My heart pounding, I focused my attention on her elegant finger and the objects she was trying to point out to me. Her eloquent, musical voice was perfectly coordinated with her meaningful gestures as I stared, dumbstruck, as everything I wanted to know became crystal clear to me. In that instant of realization, listening to her voice, I realized what it was about this lady that I loved and had been missing for the past months in Spain. She was speaking English!

And I love Lisbon.

-fin-

¡Una cerveza para mi hombre!

More Administrative Instructions

2004-10-20T07:05:00.000-07:00

Note from the Administrator (ooh ahh..) to all readers of this blog:

In response to some queries that have been received, the administration has decided to issue this imperial edict: You do not need to sign in to be able to post comments. If something that the author has written has:
1) gripped you in a way that you have never exprienced before OR
2) evoked in you this intense emotion that is simply needs to be expressed OR
3) made you want to say "hi" and see how the poor fellow´s doing

You absolutely need to post a comment. Here´s how:

Click on the "x comment(s)" link at the end of each blog. x is an element of the natural numbers.
Click on the "Post a comment" at the bottom of this new page.
Click on "Or Post Anonymously" to... well.... post anonymously. (do leave your name though, so i´ll know who posted)

¿Vale?

=)

Lisboa - the Land of Discovery

2004-10-19T06:40:00.000-07:00

Lisboa is beautiful. That was the one thing that Wenzheng and I agreed on as we boarded the overnight bus back to Madrid. We had spent 3 relaxing days in Lisboa, the capital of Portugal, the country which recently played host to Euro 2004. Foodwise, our experience can be summed up in two words: egg tarts. Oh my goodness, these were simply the best Portuguese egg tarts that I have ever eaten in my life. (p.s. if any of you are going, do let me know yah? I’ll recommend the bakery that we got ours from) Seriously – crisp and crunchy on the outside, soft and smooth on the inside, man I was about to switch allegiances from the Chinese “Dan Tat” to the Portuguese version right there and then. Mmm. Of course, Portuguese cuisine doesn’t stop there, the local specialty is grilled seafood. Ooh la la. We were two very happy travellers in Lisboa.

A little bit of history: Portugual was like the world power in the 15th and 16th century - the "Age of Discovery". That was when Portuguese sailors like Vasco da Gama (after whom a 17 km bridge across the Rio Tejo is named) opened up the trade routes to North Africa and India, making Portugal the center of a rapidly growing empire. There was this particular building, the Monument to the Discoveries, which is shaped like a Portuguese Caravel, with sculptures of all the famous personalities from the glory days of Portugal lining its prowl. The building chronicles the various Portuguese expeditions, with models of the ships that Henry the Navigator and Magellan took on their epic journeys. Understandably, I was very excited. The gold, silver, diamonds and spices that flowed back to Portugal from their colonies fuelled the Manueline Period of artisitc development, kinda like a late flamboyant Gothic with Renaissance elements. (This art history class is doing me good eh?). That's where you get the Monasterio de Jeronimos and the Belem Tower. Uhuh.

Best thing about Lisbon for us was that we got to watch BBC world, CNN and Cartoonnetwork in English. Kinda reminds us a little bit of home no?

Praise Report from Lisboa

2004-10-19T06:11:00.000-07:00

Wanted to share with you guys something that happened to me and my camera in Lisboa and how the Lord really provided. It was on our second day at Lisboa, and after a hard day of sightseeing, Wenzheng and I were making our way back to the hotel. Almost immediately after we got off bus 49, I realized that my camera was not on me. I stopped to search myself thoroughly before running after the bus, which had stopped at the red light at the next junction. But as I was reaching the bus, the lights turned and the bus moved off. I chased the bus down the next couple of blocks, but it did not stop at any of the bus stops that would have delayed it long enough to catch it. Slowly, the distance between the bus and me increased, and soon it was out of sight.

I was really disappointed – I’ve had a history with cameras; this was my third digital camera in like 2 years. The first one was stolen when I was helping out with Habitat for Humanity, the second was dropped in an accident, and now the third one had decided to take a tour of Lisboa without me. As I watched the bus go further and further, I knew that it was going to be impossible to get my camera back again. Lord, help me, I cried inwardly.

Just then, I felt prompted not to give up – how about catching the next bus 49 and ride it to the end station? Maybe I would be able to catch the earlier bus there? By the Lord’s grace, the next bus 49 pulled into the bus stop that I was at and I was able to board it. However, the bus driver didn’t speak English and I had no way to communicate my situation to him. I despaired. Two stops later, there was a change of bus driver, to a young, bespectacled man to whom I managed to explain my predicament and he did all he could to catch up with the bus in front of me.

On the bus ride to the end stop, there was nothing that I could do but to pray – to entrust the whole situation into God’s hands and ask for His grace and His help in this situation. I must say that as I was praying, I was filled with a sense of peace – that no matter what happens, I know that the Lord is control and that he will make it into something ultimately good for me. With that, I waited as the bus rumbled on to the end of the route.

Except that there was no end of the route – the buses that reach the last stop on route simply turn round and do the route in reverse. As the bus reached the last stop, the bus driver told me to quickly run across the road and catch the earlier bus that was already pulling away in the opposite direction. As I ran across the road, the bus driver helped me catch the other bus driver’s attention by honking and waving. By God’s grace, I managed to catch the bus and the bus driver handed me my camera back.

Riding the bus back, I realized how God truly was in control of everything, and how miraculous it was that He sent this helpful bus driver my way – if anything hadn’t happened the way it did, there would be no way that I would have caught up with the previous bus. I was only so close to losing my camera completely. Praise the Lord!

Where´s Wally?

2004-10-18T09:04:00.000-07:00

or more appropriately, Where´s Watty?

This thought came to me as I was sitting on the bus to Lisbon, Portugal, thinking about the "multiple lives" that I, like many people posted overseas, lead. Before any of you start thinking that I´m a student by day and caped crusader by night, I´m refering to rather disconcerting switches that people make when they travel around or return home for the summer and all. Sunday morning in Singapore would find our family heading off to our favourite breakfast place for friend noodles and I would be in the backseat, dozing off as my dad drives to church. Sunday morning in California would see me shivering as I start up the car and wait for the windows to defrost and then driving myself to church in Campbell (no dozing here!). Sunday morning in Madrid? A leisurely trip on the Metro, and if i´m lucky, a little more shuteye.

Returning home to Singapore almost always seems rather strange - maybe it´s because it´s always for a really really short period of time, kinda like a whirlwind (at least that´s what my mom claims about the state of my room - messy only once a year) or maybe it´s because of the different roles that I am required to play on my attachments and all. I dunno. But everytime I´m in Singapore, knowing that there´s a totally different life waiting for me back in California, complete with problem sets and midterms, makes me feel, well.... disconcerted. And now coming to Madrid, has been quite a different experience altogether - kinda makes me wanna stop and say, "Whoa, where am I right now, dude?"

Editor´s note: Admittedly, that wasn´t the most coherent piece of writing, but I hope that you catch my drift. =)

El Camino de Santiago

2004-10-14T07:04:00.000-07:00

Yups, it's Thursday once again. Just finished my last midterm for the week, and we're heading to Portugal tonight. More about that next week though. Wanted to update you guys about what we did this past weekend. So it was a long weekend (Friday to Tuesday), so we decided to the Camino de Santiago, or the Way of St. James. This is one of the three famous pilgrimages in the world today - to Rome, to Jerusalem, and the Camino de Santiago to the Catedral.

The entire route is about 800 km, starting in Roncesvalles in France, all the way to Santiago de Compostela, in NW Spain. We were called peregrinos or pilgrims and we were provided with a credencial that served as our passport to prove that we were pilgrims, gaining us access into places of rest and all. As we walked, we stopped in at different alburgues (kinda like motels for peregrinos) and taverns where we got sellos or stamps to prove that we had actually walked the route. Collecting the sellos were fun - they came in different shapes and colours, a little bit like collecting Pokemon. But I digress.

Original plan was to do 115 km over 4 days, doing about 20-30 km a day. Being young and hotblooded, we decided to try to rush the route in 3 days, walking 25km on the first day, 40km on the second and 50km on the last day. When we arrived at our starting town, we realised that a low pressure system had moved in over Galicia, covering the whole region. I was totally unprepared for the rain, thinking that the Spanish sun might actually be too hot to handle in the afternoon. Second day of the trip, we walked for 40 km in the rain. We started at 9 a.m. and walked pretty much for 12 hours till we reached the hotel. Fighting the wind as it whipped and howled, soaked and drenched to the core, I was feeling really quite crushed and low. Because we had already booked the hotel the night before, even when night fell, we had no choice but to finish the distance for the day.

The third day was even worse - walking from 7 a.m. in the morning till midnight, stopping only for a quick bite along the way. The sun had set at around 8p.m. and for most of the evening, we were walking in pitch darkness, worrying all the time whether we were completely lost. The camino isn't the most well travelled path - all we had for directions were little yellow arrows at path junctions telling us which way to go, and in the darkness, these were certainly very easy to miss. Shivering from the cold, legs aching from the previous days of walking, I was feeling very very low. It was 10 p.m. and we had 12 more kilometers to go. The road stretched on and on in darkness, with the mist creeping in from the sea. I felt like giving up, crying out to God for help and strength because really, I didn't know if we could make it safely.

We were climbing a little hill at that point in time, and it was at that moment that Wenzheng told me to look up at the stars - and surely, they were up ther clear, bright and beautiful. Beyond the beauty, for me, the stars were an answered prayer - God reminding me that He's watching out for us and that He's right there with us. Amen. Strengthened, we pushed on. A little further on, we decided to turn off the camino and stop for the night at the next town that we came to. No rooms at the hotel. The hotel manager told us to keep on going down the road and try the hotel there. No guarantees, he said, cos this was a busy time for the town. We decided to give it a shot.

And the Lord provided. I stumbled into the hotel, and asked:

"Tiene una doble?" Do you have a double room?

"Un momentito, por favor." One moment, please and he went to check. In my heart I was preparing myself for them to be fully booked. I mean what were the chances of finding a place to stay if the other one was fully booked?

"Sí, una doble" Yes, we have a double room

"Una doble?" A double room?

"Sí" Yes

"Una doble?" A double room? My brain was simply not functioning at this point.

"Sí, Sí, dos camas, no?" Yes, yes, two beds rite?

I could not believe my ears - surely the Lord had provided. When I asked the receptionist, he told me that this was the last room left in the hotel, and that if I had come a day earlier or a day later, the hotel would have been fully booked. I guess I can't quite capture in words the emotions that were running through me at that point in time. It's hard to express the kind of emotion you feel after 50km, 17 hours of walking, but seriously, if that hotel was full, we would have no other option but to hike back to the trail and walk on in the cold night. And we certainly were in no shape to walk at all. Not even another step.

As we collapsed on the floor of the hotel room, I was flooded with a sense of relief and joy. I couldn't believe that just an hour ago, I was out there in the cold, poldding on in the darkness, not knowing whether I would find a place to stay for the night - and now here I was warm and safe for the night. Praise God. Best part about it, we found out that the hotel was in Santiago itself - We had made it. Somehow, we had wandered into Santiago by a different path. Thank you Lord.

Looking back, my mind is still a blank when I try to analyse what I was feeling and all - it was a point that I was totally out of my comfort zone, wandering around in the middle of nowhere, in a foreign country with no one in sight for hours, body aching and spirit crushed..... and it was so sweet to know that the Lord was watching out for us and providing for us when we need Him the most. Man. Thank you Lord.

More about Santiago de Compostela tomorrow =)

The Butterfly Effect

2004-10-13T07:00:00.000-07:00

Apologies for not posting earlier - i've been really busy with travelling, studying for midterms (yes, I do have midterms), cooking, doing laundry and all. Ah yes.

Wanted to share a little something with you, something that the Pastor at IBC used in his sermon which really struck a chord with me. He was talking about the Butterfly Effect, which some of you might have heard of. There was this scientist whose name was Edward Lorenz, and he came up with this set of equations to predict the weather in different parts of the world. These equations took in different variables, crunched them around and then produced other variables that were then fed into other equations in the set, so on and so forth. He managed to predict the weather rather accurately using this set of equations. One day instead of rounding off the input variables to the millionth (i.e. 0.000001), he decided to round them off to the nearest thousandth (i.e. 0.001) and plug them in. What surprised him was that the results that he got from this set of calculations differed greatly from his initial results - the small discrepancies in the initial conditions were magnified with each iteration.

This led Lorenz to pose the famous question: Could it be then that a butterfly flapping its wings in Brazil could cause a tornado in Texas? The Pastor's point to us was this: we often belittle the everyday things, the little actions, the things that we say, thinking that they probably don't affect us in any way - but the truth of the matter is that the things that we do today invariably shape us and mold our character, for better or for worse. The things that we do feedback in our characters and influence to some extent our future actions. To quote, "the things that we do today echo in eternity". So often, I fail to think in terms of "eternity" - I don't see beyond what's right before me, focusing on what I would want for myself, what would be good for me, instead of seeking what God would want for my life. With that perspective in mind, I guess the question that I need to be asking myself is How am I preparing myself for eternity? How am I seeking to grow in Him everday? Something that I definitely need to be thinking about a whole lot more. =)

Flamenco under the stars...

2004-10-05T06:40:00.000-07:00

Whoppeee! It's Tuesday afternoon, back for yet another exciting week at school. Just had a cool history lesson about the Peloponnesian Wars, the Fall of Greece to the Macedonians, and the expedition of Alexander III (who usually goes by "The Great") Good stuff. Then of course we had salmon with melted cheese sauce for lunch. Equally interesante. But I digress.

This weekend saw us taking a trip down to the south yet again - to the region of Andalusia, the city of Granada. This was the last city to be taken back during the Reconquista, which ended 8 centuries of Islamic influence in Spain. One of the main reasons why tourists come to Granada is to see the Alhambra, the jewel of all Islamic architecture. Granada was chosen as the capital of Nasrid Period when the Moors were ruling most of Southern and Central Spain, and they built the Alhambra as their crowning glory. More about that in a bit. We got into Granada by overnight bus, and then headed around to the Catedral and the Capilla Real (Royal Chapel). After a hearty Menu del dia, we unanimously decided, in true Spanish fashion to head for a nice siesta. Mmm. I mean Spain is literally a cauldron during the afternoons, and Granada being in the south - wooah.

Anyhow, we left the hotel again at 7 p.m. (yes i know, we're lazy) and then headed off to catch a view of the Alhambra by sunset. The place that we went to was a vantage point called Mirador de San Nicolas in Albayzin. In Spanish, "mirar" is "to see" which i suspect has links with the english words "mir-ror" and "mir-age". Interesting, no? Anyhow, on our way up, we met this dude who literally lives in the "caves of Granada" So Granada is really hilly, so he moved into a cave, cleaned it up, painted the walls and it became his house! He was really friendly and all, took us inside to have a look and all that. The best part about it, this "caveman" drives a red Porsche Carrera. Man.

Anyhow, we made it up to the Mirador and chatted as the dusk began to fall, the setting sun bathing the Alhambra in a reddish glow. ¡Muy Bonita! Took like 5 billion pictures of course. We headed off for dinner somewhere deep in Albayzin, and we chanced upon this little flamenco performance being put up in the square. Maybe it was the atmosphere that we were in - the sun had set, and the night was cool and agreeable. Maybe it was the people around us - little children running around, playing soccer, chasing one another, throwing stones into fountains, the hawkers selling baked potatoes and roasted chestnuts, the fragrances filling the air.The people of the city, strolling out of their houses, greeting one another with typical Spanish warmth as they gathered around to see what was going on. Maybe it was the performers themselves, the dancers arrayed in flowing, frilly flamenco-style dresses, the singers with roses in their hair, or the guitarists, big strapping men whose fingers weaved magic over the strings of the guitar.

Song after song, we watched, spellbounded, as the older locals danced along to music that they grew up with, reliving moments of their youths when they must have danced in simliar fashion, albeit with more force, but no less spirit. The soulful voices of the singers seemed to hang in the night sky even after the song had finished. Wow. Flamenco truly is beautiful.

As we walked home that day, I'm sure that we had an extra spring in our steps. It was a lovely evening, and I guess what really added to the romanticism of it all was that it was something that we had just stumbled upon, and everyone knows, that sometimes, the best things in life are chanced upon. Sí?

Real Madrid 4 - AS Roma 2

2004-09-29T01:58:00.000-07:00

Love´em or hate ´em, you´ve gotta admit that when Real Madrid turns on the style, they turn on the style.

Second match at the Estadio Santiago Bernebeu, the atmosphere was really quite crazy. Real had lost last week in the La Liga, languishing in 9th place, and fans were certainly not happy. 2 minutes into the game, Real were down by 1. 20 minutes into the game, Real were down by 2. Fans were booing and whistling their displeasure with the team. Ouch. It´s gotta be stressful playing in white.

Then the floodgates opened - 4 goals knocked back in succession, with total dominance in all aspects of play. Like seriously. Roma got to touch the ball like maybe for 10 minutes, broken up in 10 second lots. It was a good night for Real.

We were happy of course, Real´s kinda like our "surrogate" team while we´re here. What made the night especially cool was that we heard that Man U beat Fenerbahce 6-2. And of course, the midnight BK double cheeseburger to celebrate.

Bien.

Barcelona... Episode III

2004-09-28T08:00:00.000-07:00

As always, there´s a little something about food. So here goes.

The highlight of the day was most certianly hitting the tapas bars, where we felt the true impact of coming back up North. Man, it was like San Sebastián all over again. Like San Seb, Barcelona calls their tapas "pintxos", really to be pronouced "peen-chos", cos the "x" is pronounced like the "sh", but you've got the "t" in front so "tx" gives you a "ch" sound. (If you're reading this and trying to mouth the words and see how they sound, give yourself a pat on the back yah? Vale.) Just like "Eixample", which was the place that we stayed and "Xavi", the FC Barcelona player. Anyhow, back to the topic of pintxos. Between the two of us, we cleaned out like 23 pintxos.... i mean, we cleaned out the place man... we tried like everything there was to try, and boy, it was good!Scallops, salmon, olives and roasted meats, skewered shrimps, salted cod.... and they had this particularly insidious way of serving up the pintxos. Everytime the kitchen prepared a new set of pintxos, the plates of pintxos would go on a "victory lap", with the bartender walking down the length of the bar, offering it to everyone there. I mean, against such evil tactics, who would be able to resist? The rest, they say, is history. And of course, there was the "calimotxo" as well. For those in the know. ¡Muy Bien!

One of the other things that we did was go to the Barcelona Forum 2004, which held its closing ceremony the weekend that we were there. Double score! The Forum is amazing - the organisers had flown in groups from all over the world to be part of this festival - Arabian magicians, Morrocan acrobats, cabaret dancers, Chinese puppeters - bringing the world to Barcelona. There was so much stuff going on that that I was at a loss as to where to begin. There were exhibitions on sustainable development, inner city issues, women rights, education, ethnic consciousness, etc. - it would take 3 days to properly look at everything that was on display there. Performances too. Watched a giant grasshopper fight off a giant spider, did an African dance to the setting Catalunian sun... ah Barcelona....

One of the closing acts for the night was called "Move the World", which tells the story of how the world began, civilisations developed and how, as time passed, humans have been abusing the earth, and the hope that we have for the future. Situated in this artificial lake at one end of the Forum, we watched as metal struts rise up from their submerged position in the water to form the shape of the earth, the entire structure bathed in blue and green, conveying a sense of peace and serenity. Then suddenly the music changes, its tempo quickening, with snippets of news reports being read out - earthquakes, wars, protests, ethnic cleansings are just some of the words that can barely be heard over the buzz of the news. The music crescendos to a fever pitch... and then nothing. The globe darkened and silent, a warning of the future that awaits us if we continue to exhaust the resources we have. Chairs begin to rise out of the lake, and people dressed in white walk out from amongst the audience, swim across the lake to take up their positions on the chairs; the whiteness of their costumes a stark contrast to the darkened structure of the globe. They stare longingly at the globe, as if posing the question to those watching - What would you choose? Which path would you take? Wow.

http://www.barcelona2004.org/eng/

Barcelona... and Feste de la Mercè

2004-09-27T07:22:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons why Barcelona was the destination of choice this past weekend was because the city held a gi-normous festival for its patron Saint - La Mercè. Little bit of history here - La Madonna de la Mercè or the Madonna of Largesse apparently appeared to the local saint in a dream, bidding him to establish a religious order to save Christians who were suffering under the Barbary pirates, and then in 1637, she saved the city from a plague of locusts. Hence the beer and festivities. Vale.

Seriously, it seemed as if the whole town was out on the streets. The Passeig de Grácia, one of the main thoroughfares of the city was cordoned off and the whole street was filled with stalls and shops with colorful displays and items on sale. Plazas were turned into playgrounds, with giant checkers or chess sets or other games being laid out to the excitement of the children there. Human towers, a Catalonian speciality, were being built to like 6 or 7 levels. Most interesting were these papier-mâchè giants that were 15 feet tall, of kings and queens, warriors and musicians, dragons and lions, bears and tortoises. As they paraded by, the crowd joined in as well, clapping and cheering to the lively tunes that were being played. Cajoled by the emcee on stage, Wenzheng and I joined in the sardana, the gentle, twirling, hippity-hoppity Catalunian dance, as King Fernando and Queen Isabel (in papier-mâchè form, of course) danced and twirled in the background. I think the dragon had some pretty slick moves too. Way hot.

We made our way along the Las Ramblas, down to the port, where I watched one of the most spectacular shadow shows put up by a group of buskers. Simply brilliant. Caught the fireworks fired from across the bay, wrapping up a most exciting day.

Certainly one to remember.

http://www.bcn.es/merce/index_ingles.html

Barcelona... aka KFC

2004-09-27T07:20:00.000-07:00

which seriously means Kevin's (Lee) Favourite City (in Spain). I think it is one of my favourite cities too. We just had like 3 intense days in Barcelona - you know how it is when you just go through experience after experience and each of them is so unique and special that you´re just overwhelmed? 3 days of that. Barcelona, Barcelona...

Allow me to back it up a couple of days. The hostel that we were at had internet, and so some bits I tried to download from my brain into my blog to prevent overloading. Low on memory lah.

Friday Morning, el 24 de Septiembre

So we got into Barcelona this morning - at 6:19 a.m. via the overnight bus. Blearly eyed, we found our hostel, and then the adventure began. So a little bit about Barcelona and Catalunya. Must value add mah. Si boh? Barcelona is the capital of Catalunya, a country distinct and yet not quite separate from the rest of España. While fiercely independent and protective of their unique culture and language, the Catalonians have no qualms about letting the Spanish governmenthandle foreign relations and set foreign policy. They speak Catalan in Barcelona, which is very similar to Castellano, of which Español is the most common variant. Essentially, Barcelona had a tough time under Franco, who perceived them as dissidents and tried to assimilate Catalunya into the rest of España by banning Catalan and trying to dilute Catalunya with migrants from other parts of Spain. Yet, the Catalonians held on and after four decades under Franco, they finally gained their liberty on 20th November 1975 when Franco died. Much of the Catalonian resistance was expressed through soccer - with the setting up of FC Barcelona, to challenge the dominance of Real Madrid, which was then known as ¨"Franco´s favourite team". It is no wonder now that everytime these two teams meet, it is more than just soccer being played. And may I add that Barcelona has an awesome team this year.

First stop was the Sagrada Familia, or the Holy Family Church. So Barcelona is like Gaudí land, whose artistic genius has forever shaped the architectural scene in Barcelona. His works of art alone pretty much support the tourism industry in Barcelona, with hordes of people flocking to Barcelona just to see his work. One of the drivers of Modernisme or "a taste for what is modern", Gaudí worked on this church from 1883 to 1926 but was killed in a tram car accident before he could finish constructing even the first facade. Even now, the Sagrada Familia is one big construction site, with work not going to be completed any time in the near future. I can´t even begin to describe how amazing the buildling is - Gaudí´s work is quite simply breathtaking. Breaking away from every single convention during his time, his masterpieces have a very organic feel to them, berry-like structures adorn the steeples of the chapels, the central aspe made to resemble the overhanging canopy of a rainforest, with the pillars bearing striking resemblance to the branches of the trees. Amazing.

We visited the Casa Milà and Park Güell on the second and third days of our trip, just so as to get our "Gaudí-fix" every day. As he put it "Architecture is all about the ordering of light", and this was seen in the large open airwells and catenary arches that were revolutionary for his time. Still, it is Casa Milà´s chimneys that first come to mind when we think about Gaudí. Each chimney is individually shaped and designed, made to resemble, in my opinion, the helmets of Roman soldiers. Gaudí´s attention to detail is amazing, and he would fuss over every single aspect of the building right down the the doorknobs and colour of the individual tiles on the floors. Exquisite. Park Güell houses the most famous "animal" in all of Barcelona, Gaudí´s salamander which greets you as you enter the park. There were seriously throngs of people just crowding around that salamander. Like I tried to take a picture and each time there were like 5 or 6 people (or parts of people) in the photo as well. Haha. Hiked up the the very top of Park Güell, which is built into the side of Mont Pelat, and spent the afternoon looking out over the city of Barcelona.

Gaudí´s work is simply amazing. A deeply religious man, when asked why he took so long to build the Sagrada Familia, Gaudí said that "my client is not in a hurry". Amen to that. Maybe that´s how we should view our lives as well. Just a thought.

Check Gaudí out at:
http://www.gaudi2002.bcn.es/english/index.htm

More of Barcelona tomorrow. Need... sleeep..... now...

school

2004-09-23T06:50:00.000-07:00

just in case any of you were wondering... is he actually studying? I decided to write something about school and how things were going and all. I mean, at the expense of belabouring the point,let me categorically state that I am here, primarily, first and foremostly (?) to study. Don´t believe the rumours. =)

So I´m done for the week yet again. Just had a really awesome art history class. I tell you - there was a friend of mine from the 19th Students Council who was taking Art History at A levels, and I was doing like Core + Further math, Physics and Econs, and I was like "Art History? Huh?" I´m beinging to see how mistaken I was. We talked about the Reconquista today, the taking back of Spain from the Moors. We learnt about how Islam began as a region, grew steadily in might and strength, swept over the whole of Northern Africa, crossed the Straits of Gilbraltar, conquered most of Spain and finally, with the whole of Europe before then, were stopped in a French town on the other side of the Pyrennes called Poiters. In doing so, they established a kingdom in Southern Spain, called "Al-Andalus", or the modern day region of Andalucia. The legacy that they left behind is simply amazing - Spain can boast of having the most beautiful and exquisite mosques and Islamic palaces ever built, such as the Alhambra de Granada.

The Reconquista then began from Asturias a region of Spain that had never fallen. (Which is why the Spainish equivalent of the "Prince of Wales" is the "Prince of Asturias", next in line for throne).
The Visgoths (I believe) swept out from Asturias and took back Spain, with the Reconquista ending in 1492. The artistic forms and conventions and architecture of Spain bears testimony to the changes that were taking place. There is a beautiful Catholic cathedral in Cordoba (anyone been there?), that is built in the middle of a Mosque (from the Moorish period), which was in turn built over the ruins of a Visgoth Church (when the Visgoths conquered Spain), which was itself built over the ruins of a Roman temple, when the Roman Empire had extended its reach till Spain. Wow.

Amazing stuff. I was absolutely blown away. Just to share with you a little joke from history class (history? joke? no offense, Tim). So the story goes that some archaelogists were digging underneath the pyramids of Egypt, and they discovered cables. Intrigued by their find, they brough in a leading Greek historian to make sense of it. The conclusion of the historian - Egyptian society had telephones. A similar excavation was done under the Acropolis, but they foud nothing. Conclusion of the historian? Greek society was already using cell phones.

Bien.

realMadrid

2004-09-23T06:00:00.000-07:00

Hola everyone! Apologies for the delay in posting... was supposed to blog on the Real Madrid - Osasuna match yesterday, but I was busy buying plane tickets... won´t tell you guys where just yet, but you´ll find out in due course...

Back to the match. Man, the feeling of walking into the Bernabeu was quite overwhelming, it´s quite an impressive buildling, not because of its beauty or anything... but really because of the sheer size and significance of the place. Like I was thinking, this is going to be as close to as I will ever get to Beckham. (note: not that i want to get close to Beckham in the first place, just in case you were wondering) Wenzheng and I were like sitting at the second highest row of the stadium lah... but still we could feel the atmosphere. And when Real Madrid scored, the whole stadium erupted. Real Madrid is a pretty awesome team - especially the midfield, quite simply amazing. Like pretty much anyone in that team can step up and take free kicks - Beckham, Zidane, Figo, R. Carlos? Which Beckham did, and scored the only goal of the match.

Question that I had though - do you know how it is that after players score, they run to the corner flag? I mean, when you watch it on TV, it seems to be the most natural thing in the world.... the scorer runs there and then everyone hugs him and kisses his bald head or something like that.... but when you´re there watching at the stadium... it just doesn´t make sense! And people like Salgado who plays all the way behind has to run all the way up to congratulate him. Maybe the players are reminded to run to the corner flag after they score..... for the cameras lah i suppose. Sheesh. And no replays. So if you miss the goal, you miss the goal. No slow mo or whatsoever. Maybe i would better appreciate the match, replays and all, lounging in my armchair. Hrm.

Still, the atmosphere was awesome. The crowd was a little hostile at first... Real having lost to Leverkusen 0-3 and Españyol 0-1, but warmed up towards the end. Haha. Quite simply amazing. I guess watching Real Madrid play is like one of the first things that people would probably ask me about when I get back. The conversation would probably go something like this:

"Yeah, I spent a semester in Madrid. Study abroad programme."

"Oh wow! / Cool! So did you go watch Real Madrid play?"

"Yeah."

"Man! / Awesome! Did you see (fill in blank as appropriate, Beckham, Zidane, Figo, Raul, etc.)? "

"Yep." or "No, he doesn´t play for Real Madrid." (oops)

finito

Just got tickets for the Champion´s League fixture between Real and AS Roma. That one should be good. Keep you guys posted.

¡Real Madrid vale!

we are going to our first...

2004-09-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

match at the Estadio de Santiago Bernabeu! Wheeeee! Real Madrid plays Osasuna tonight at 10p.m. More details tomorrow. Don´t you all wish you were here?

Cried while preparing dinner last night. Nothing sentimental. Just the onions. Or as Tim taught me to say "No dramas". =)

GREs

2004-09-20T23:09:00.000-07:00

Praise report: remember in one of the earlier blogs, i talked about my anxiety over the GRE scores? So come September 7th (the day that the score sheet was supposed to arrive at home), and there was no sign of the scores. Waited a couple of days and still nothing. I was beginning to despair and all, mentally preparing myself to have to take the GREs all over again. For those of you who aren´t familiar with the GREs, it´s this 4 hour long computerised test which is honestly quite draining both to prepare for and just to sit for even. Yeah. Anyhow, about a week ago, my parents dropped me a sms to say that they received the scores at home and all was well! Praise God!

I guess God was teaching me about trust - about fully turning things over to his control. I learnt that it ís one thing to pray to God and say that we give whatever "worry" we have to Him, but I guess an additional challenge is for us to stick to that and not worry about it. During the weeks of "waiting", I found myself focusing on the GRE situation, just wanting some sort of resolution, worrying about the problem, and I constantly had to remind myself to give it up to God and to submit myself to His timing and His plan. Certainly not a one-off "I-trust-you-God" kinda thing and no worrying on my part. Something that I need to learn. =)

La Giralda y Catedral en Sevilla..

2004-09-19T07:56:00.000-07:00

Day 2. Got up at 11:15 a.m. In danger of missing breakfast, and no place to eat lunch until 2. Made it for some bocadillos y ensalada (sanwiches and salad) and all was good. Haha. A real bunch of bums we are.

First stop was the Catedral and La Giralda tower. So the Catedral is like the 3rd largest in the whole of Europe, behind the Vatican in Rome (no.1) and St. Paul´s in London (no.2). I could have kicked myself really - when I stopped over at Geri´s place after my UK stint, she took me down the Thames to Millennium bridge which leads into St. Paul´s, but I didn´t go in and have a look. Grrr. So anyhow, the Catedral in Sevilla, 3rd largest in Europe, and the largest Gothic cathedral in the world. Simply breathtaking. Wandered around the Catedral taking in the sheer expense of space and beauty that surrounded me. Even saw the tomb of Christopher Colombus, or Cristobal Cólon, as the Spanish would called him, carried by the statues of 4 kings. Must have been a pretty important dude. Looking beyond the grandeur of the Catedral, I was struck by the sense of how important God must have been to the people even then - that people would toil for a hundred years, devoting the finest labour of their hands to Him. Wow. Certainly made me reflect on my own commitment and where I was in my walk with Him. From age to age, the name of the Lord is to be praised!

Next stop, the Alcázar, with its very unique architecture - a Christian palace built in Moorish style. Most interesting was the Chapel Santa Maria de la Buenas Aires (St. Mary of the Fair Winds), who was the patron saint of navigators, as well as Colombus´ favourite saint. Took a picture there too, for "fair winds and following seas". Yup yup. 1492 was also the year where the Reconquista was over, and that provided the momentum for Colombus to set sail for the West. hence the merging of architecture in the Alcázar.

After a refreshing tapas break, we headed off to Plaza de España, where we waited for dusk to fall and the lights to come on. ¡Muy hermoso! We just sat there watching little kids run around playing hide and seek, ride their little bicycles around, a newly engaged couple taking wedding photos, just soaking in the atmosphere at one of Sevilla´s most popular paseo or "strolling" places. Bien.

http://www.andalucia.com/cities/seville/plazadeespana.htm

Caught the midnight bus back to Madrid... rumble rumble rumble.... got in around 6 and then off to church. ¡Adiós Sevilla!

Sevilla, Sevilla...

2004-09-19T07:15:00.000-07:00

Yup, so this weekend, Sevilla was the destination of choice (our choice, really, but i guess that phrasing sounded pretty cool). Apparently Sevilla is one of the cities that most people would head to in Spain, rather than Madrid. Many of my friends who have been to the Iberian peninsula have been to places like Sevilla, Granada and Barcelona, but not to Madrid. Hrm. In doing our research before coming out here, Wenzheng and I found many study abroad programmes in Sevilla, but Madrid is definitely the place to be, with the capital being very centrally located.

So a little bit of geographical background about Sevilla. Sevilla was one of the great Spanish cities, arguably the Spanish city during 1492, when Christopher Colombus sailed the ocean blue. About one hour from el costa del sur (Coast of the South), the Guadalquívir River runs through the south of Sevilla, a 100 km channel that linked the city to the Atlantic Ocean. It was along this river that ships used to ply, bringing gold, silver and other exotic goods from the New World. (It´s interesting because Wenzheng and I are playing this archaic computer game with 16-bit graphics called Colonisation and they talk about the whole Spanish expedition to New World thing, but I digress) The Torre del oro (Tower of Gold) guards the river as it enters the city, its name derived from the gold plates that used to cover its exterior. No prizes for guessing where the gold came from. How then did Madrid become the capital? Well, aparently some king decided to chose it to be the capital of Spain because of its central location and also because Madrid is built on a large plateau, so good for defence and all that other good stuff.

We got in around three in the afternoon, headed for some tapas (a common thread throughout our expeditions), met up with Kevin Lee a little later and then headed off for a walk down the river, enjoying the sights and all. I must say that the south is different from the rest of Spain in a very subtle way. One thing that I noticed was that almost all of the houses were painted white in colour, or at most some very light khaki or pastel. And yes, it was incredibly hot there - so hot that you just want to jump into some fountain. Which was what we did on the second day, ducked into some Tapas bar and just chomped on tapas to get out of the heat. Ahhhhh.

Oh yes, and Sevilla is the home of Flamenco. So flamenco comes in many forms, and I shall present a rudimentary exposition. Flamenco is really a mixture of dancing, singing and guitar playing, with guitar playing being the mainstay of the performance. Flamenco dancing is really about machine gun footwork and lotsa hand motions. Man, those legs were hitting the floor so fast and so hard that i´m sure that the dancer is going to get arthritis before she´s like 22 or something. They looked very grim too though, eyebrows constantly furrowed. I always thought they were supposed to be happy doing the dance. Maybe she needed the toilet or something. Or maybe she was trying portray an emotion that matched the mood of the story being told. And that´s where the song comes in. The singers are usually guys, and i gather that they are singing a love story, cos I heard "mi corazon" or "my heart" being repeated a couple of times. Or maybe they are talking about some heart orperation thing. But I guess the former would probably be it. It has been said that the wailing, droning flamenco singing carries echoes of the Muslim call to prayer reminiscent of the time when Andalucia was under the Moorish control. Hrm. Anyhow, the singers would also be in charge of syncopated clapping, stomping and shouts of ¡vale! and ¡vamos! throughou the song. Flamenco guitar - need I say more? Quite simply breathtaking.

We left the flamenco place at 1:30 a.m. and retired for the evening. Zzzz.

Soldier´s Cry

2004-09-13T08:25:00.000-07:00

Here´s a song that I wanted to share with you all. It came to mind recently when I was travelling on the bus, feeling spiritually quite drained and all. For me it was a reaffirmation of Jesus´ promise to those who follow him: "And surely I am with you always, till the very end of the age". Matt 28:20.
What comforting words! No matter where you are, no matter how tough your circumstances, no matter what age you´re living in, "heaven and earth shall pass away, by my words will never pass away." Matt 24:35

A Soldier´s Cry

When I first said I´d follow
Not knowing what lay ahead.
Still I said,´"I´ll trust you, Jesus."
And He said, "This, I promise you."

Chorus:
Through the wind, through the waves
Yet the call is still the same.
Stand firm, and be not afraid.
Through the fire, through the night
Hold on fast to the light
And lo, I am with you always.

When the path grows long and weary
And it´s hard to remain faithful and true
Still I hear the Master gently whisper
"I too, came to serve and obey."

Chorus

Bridge:
Till at last I lay my armour down
Oh let me stand amongst the conquerors
Till the battle´s done and the victory´s won
I will hear the angels sing...

Chorus

el primer visitante

2004-09-13T08:06:00.000-07:00

Kevin Lee, our friend from Stanford, and my Raffles Cafe (Singaporean food) eating buddy, decided to drop by Spain before heading back for another gruelling, intense, masochistic and stressful quarter at Stanford. So we met up on Sunday, and hung out for a bit. Highlight of the day was definitely just wandering around Puerta del Sol (Gate of the Sun), getting lost and discovering this totally cool chocolateia - man it was so good. (I bet this past weekend alone I must have put on like 5 Kg!!). Basically, one of the delicacies in Spain is eating the Chocolat con churros - a warm cup of molten chocolate with these pastry things which look like 1) pretzels untwisted or 2) the Spanish version of You Tiao. Man, you could feel the chocolate clogging up your arteries as you drink the stuff. My goodnes. Apparently, it´s right behind one of the most famous clubs in Madrid called "Joy", and it is supposedly the place of choice at like 5 in the morning after coming out of the dance club. I conjectured that perhaps chocolate was a good cure for hangovers - good way to clear the head up and all. Kevin thought that given how unhealthy the stuff was, it was a cure in the sense that they wouldn´t be worried so much about hangovers but rather about heart attacks. Something else to worry about. Oh well.

Kevin Lee flew off this morning to Barcelona and we are meeting up with him in Sevilla this weekend. Yeah.

journey to the North

2004-09-13T07:55:00.000-07:00

Wenzheng and I have officially decided that school is really quite tough. For four days that is. I mean - from Mondays to Thursday, we are really slogging away - tons of reading to be done, Español to practice, art to appreciate and all. Man... we were tired out after our first full week of school (i.e. ending on Thursdays at 1:45 p.m.)

So anyhow, having a trip planned for the weekend was really good - gave us something to look forward to. So this weekend was the trip up to the North, to Bilbao and San Sebastian. These two cities are by the coast - in Basque country, famous for its food and Separatists. Anyhow. We were in San Sebestian, I think, and there was this sign which said " Tourist: You are not in France. You are not in Spain. You are in Basque country." Rock on.

Anyhow, the main attraction in Bilbao was the Guggenheim. We got off the autobus at about 1:40 p.m. and then proceeded to have one of the best meals that we ever had since our arrival in Spain. Fantastico. The food in the North is truly truly delicious. I had some rape en sidra (Monkfish in cider), while Wenzheng had some callos (tripe) en viz-something, that was really really really good. Oh man. If you´re looking for good food.... Northern Spain is definitely the place to go.

Next, we decided to adjourn to the Museo Guggenheim Bilbao. So the Guggenheim is like this whole family of art galleries - there´s the Solomon R. Guggenheim in New York, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice, the Deutsche Guggenheim in Berlin and the Guggenheim Hermitage Museum in Las Vegas (Las Vegas?? How cultural is that??) Anyhow, the trip to the museum was rather... ah...disappointing. Or maybe it was just that Wenzheng and I hadn´t the artistic sense nor depth to fully appreciate the art on display. We were hoping the vino tinto (red wine) over lunch would have helped in our appreciation process, but to no avail. The first two floors were pop art - essentially a juxtaposition of common every day pictures and objects to create a jarring effect on the viewer (or at least that was how it seem for me). Sheeshkebab.

The architecture of the building was quite something else though. Designed by the famous architect Frank Gehry, the building was crafted to look both like a "ship" and a "fish", to draw attention to the fishing and shipping history of the town. It was highly controversial, because the citizens of Bilbao didn´t like it too much (sound familiar??), and said that it was an eyesore and all. I personally liked it alot - bold curves and overlapping panellings, creating functional space, yet perserving the outward features of a fish and a ship. Interestingly, before the Museo was built in Bilbao, the city had fallen behind in economic prosperity compared to its neighbours to the East (Barcelona) and South (Madrid), and the Guggenheim was a bid to revive the city. With art aficionados like us who would travel all the way there just to visit the Guggenheim, it has been said that the city has more than recovered its investment in the museum. One clear case of art paying off.

Check it out:
http://www.guggenheim-bilbao.es/ingles/edificio/el_edificio.htm

San Sebestian (cos i thought that it was time for another header to breakup my otherwise too verbose blog

We caught an evening bus to San Sebestian, where we spent the next 3 hours wandering around trying to find accomodation. Thinking that there couldn´t possily be that many people in San Sebestian, we just decided to go ahead without making the reservations and as it turned out, everything, absolutely everything was full. We tried like about 25 pensions and hostals and hotels and like everything was full. Oh man. Crikey.

Still, they say that if you visit San Sebestian, you definitely need to stay the night. At 12:30 a.m., after giving up hope of trying to find a place to stay, we decided to go for dinner at one of the local pubs. So in Spain, there´s this whole culture of eating tapas, little bits of finger goods, maybe some preserved fish, olives, croquettas, etc. In Basque, they are called Pintxos, and man, they are seriously out of this world. Imagine a whole area, just filled with rows and rows of little pubs and bars, wih the entire countertop filled with plates of these mouth-watering foods. Oh man...... Salmon, octopus, prawns, spanish egg tarts.... Wow..... People just standing around, making small talk with the bartenders at 2 in the morning as if this was the most natural thing in the world to do, moving around from bar to bar.... ¡extraordinario! Yup, so we spent the night happily chomping away. Eat first, pay later. Yum!

We wanted to try out some of the famous Basque seafood for lunch the next day, but somehow we got side tracked by the tantalising Pintxos once again. Once again, more bar hopping, trying out the different pintxos everywhere..... we were super sleep deprived at that point, but man.... that food was keeping us going! Oh yes, the other beautiful thing about San Sebestian is the gorgeous beaches. Simply breathtaking. And the people who live there really know how to enjoy it - throngs of people just walking up and down the beach, lying in the sun, taking a dip. Ah.... One thing about Spain that I have discovered - pace of life is certainly much slower, and the people here are certainly more content to appreciate life as it is, without having to rush here and there and constantly be doing stuff. ¡Bien!

Caught some shut eye on the 6 hour bus ride back to Madrid. Zzz.... definiltey one of the best trips that we´ve taken. Mmm.

making it through another week

2004-09-09T06:46:00.000-07:00

apologies for the rather sluggish infrequent blogging updates, much like the great Nile in its ebb. (okay, trying to use a bit of what we´ve been learning in class). So anyhow, it´s the end of yet another week of school!! Woppee! Yet the strange thing about it is that despite the "marginally" reduced courseload, Wenzheng and I seem to be rather tired everday. Maybe it´s the sun, or the Spanish culture of siesta-ing, or the cooking... or maybe the Colonization/Half-life. Hrm. The mysteries of life.

Anyhow, ever since Wai Keen introduced us to the Chinese Restaurant in Plaza de España, we made like two trips in two days. We seriously need to ease up on the Chinese food man. We talked about some possible ideas to achieve this. Either having some quota system (like 1 Chinese Meal every 2 weeks) or some like Trump Card (5 trump cards each when we buay tahan and need to each Chinese food) kinda thing, or maybe some ERP system where we have to pay a premium that goes into the "Help-Wenzheng-and-Sean-tour-Spain" fund everytime we eat there. I mean, we don´t want to come back and tell people that we only ate Fried Noodles, Ban Mian and Guo Tie (a.k.a. pot stickers) rite?

At any rate, the week´s been going pretty okay. Just trying to get some reading done, planning for the next weekend trip and all that. On Monday we sat down and planned out what to do for the next 5 weekends. Something to look forward too I must say. This weekend takes us to Bilbao and San Sebastian, arguably some of the nicest cities in the whole of Spain, right on the Northern coastline. Tell you guys more about it in a couple of days. (I´m seriously running out of topics man, i´m even have to resort to blogging about stuff that hasn´t even happened!)

Talking about food. It was my turn to cook last night (we started this turn-based system, cos we realised that we shouldn´t BOTH spend 3 hours cooking something for dinner).. so after a hurried consultation with my mom, I finally managed to cook some soy sauce chicken thing and some crabmeat-onion-egg thing and some rice/porridge thing. As you can see, our cooking is not quite "food" as yet... they are still "things" Haha. Oh and Wenzheng cooked some fantastic noodles with salmon and crabmeat and shrimp the other day. ¡Muy Delicioso! (oh and in case you´re wondering what those upside down ¿ and ¡ mean, think of them as some parentheses kind thing. ¿Simple?)

One of the post-dinner-I-feel-like-nuahing-around-conversations brought us to the topic of contentment. I can´t remember what the whole discussion was about, but on my part, I felt that God was teaching me about contentment, and really trying to find out how he can use me, or the way that he is using this season of my life to teaching me certain lessons or things about myself. I guess I was feeling a little discontented thinking about the other things that i could be doing - maybe wishing that I was back home to spend time with my family and friends, maybe wishing that i was back in California to take classes and actually work towards my major, maybe missing the Christian community back at school. Yet I believe that at every stage of your life, God has a plan for you, and you can rest assured that it will be a good one.

"... being confident of this, that He who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Phil 1:6

Amen!

going to church

2004-09-06T11:46:00.000-07:00

it´s 8:20 in the evening. just had a soccer game with some of the students here in the university. Wanted to share with you all our experience at church. So we decided to go this church called Immanuel Baptist Church - where the Son shines in Madrid! It´s a really nice church, quite an international mix of people, mostly working people, about 150 or so. Took a metro there - it takes about 1+ hours to get there, and in my heart i was already thinking whether I should consider another church that perhaps wouldn´t be quite so far to get to. We got out of the metro and were trying to orientate ourselves with the roads and all. Honestly, there were no signs that we could see. I had foolishly forgotten to print out a map and so we were standing there for a while and were about to head off in the wrong direction when this man who had just got out of the station approached us and asked us if we were looking for the IBC. Wow! So we kinda walked for about 15 minutes and finally made it to the church. I wondered how he knew that we were trying to get there?

Second amazing thing to happen was that as we turned up at the church gate, this car pulled up beside us and out stepped a Singaporean! Of all things! (okay, i´m making Singaporeans sound like anomalies or something, but you catch my drift) His name was Wai Keen, and he knew the professor whom I metioned in an earlier blog. He brought us for a nice tim sum lunch later, and he told us all the good and cheap places to get Chinese/Indian food around Madrid. Ooh Lala! I didn´t think too much of it then, but when I was reflecting on the day´s events, I was struck by how these events were surely too much of a coincidence to be by chance. For me, I saw them as God really watching over us and bringing us to a great church to worship at. I mean what are the chances of someone randomly approaching us and asking us if we were looking to go to his particular church? Even more so, what is the chance of running into yet another Singaporean in Madrid? Maybe they grow them somewhere over here, but i´m quite sure that there aren´t that many. According to the professor, there are only 3 Singaporeans in this area. And by God´s grace, we have met two of them and they have been blessings to us in settling in and all. We had lunch with the small group that Wai Keen was leading and the warmth and love that we received was amazing. It was wonderful to be in community once again. Thank God for community. Really reminds me of how much I love and appreciate my community back at Stanford - my brothers, Intervarsity, the Singapore Cell Group (a.k.a. SSKJAS) and all.

The amazing thing about it was that I was asking God the other day to provide a church and wisdom and guidance in choosing one, and I believe that this is his answer. I´m still praying over this decision, and I´m sure that the Lord will lead me to a place that I can grow and serve.

Just wanted to share the passage that the pastor preached from, which really spoke to my heart. It´s from Psalms 19, and it speaks of the goodness and the joy that comes from a life of obedience to God. It really made me think about the times that I resented/still resent keeping in line with God´s laws due to my sinful nature and how I´ve fallen short of His glory on so many occasions. For my reader, these are the words of the psalmist:

"The law of the Lord is perfect, reviving the soul.
The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple.
The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart.
The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes.
The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever.
The ordinances of the Lord are sure and altogether righteous.
They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold;
they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the comb.
By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward."
Psalms 19:7-11

"How can a young man keep his way pure?
By living according to your word."
Psalms 119:9

Administrative Detail

2004-09-06T11:13:00.000-07:00

Was thinking of inserting this somewhere in a blog, but i guess having it separate would be good too. Some of you said that you had to register to leave a comment and that was quite troublesome, so now i made it such that you don´t have to register to leave a comment. So do leave comments! It´s kinda like a monologue over here sometimes =) But do leave your name please, so that i know who left it! God Bless!

Hola Segovia!

2004-09-06T06:24:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, as part of our "Go-Around-Spain" Project, we decided to go to Segovia, a beautiful little city in Castilla y Leon, a region to the North of Madrid. The main tourist attraction, in my opinion, is the aquaduct, this super long water transporting thing that transports water from point A to point B. So apparently water was a really big thing during these times, and the King of Spain was afraid that the city would run outta water or something like that so they made like lotsa lotsa reserviors or lakes and these aquaduct things to channel water to the people. It was seriously pretty impressive - imagine this towering (literally) structure that has stood since antiquity stretching across this modern day plaza. Quite interesting indeed.

The other things that Segovia is famous for is suckling pig, which Wenzheng and I absolutely had to go try. The little pig or cochinillo, is reared for 21 days and then it´s into the oven. To be honest, it tasted like chicken, but Wenzheng the connoisseur, claimed that it had the distictive "pork" taste. Fantástico. It was Guuuuud.

We milled around Segovia for a bit, got lost, found the Alcazar (some palace), went it, came out and then decided to head back home. On the bus trip back, we decided to form our Santa Maria Cabinet. You know, what with the handover and all, it was time that had our own little cabinet reshuffle. Fresh young faces lah you know.

Minister for Foreign Affairs - Wenzheng
Scope: Mainly invovled in exploring options to get to Hungary to visit Shaowei. MFA is also involved in gathering intelligence on our neighbours and establishing goodwill with them by giving them plates of moderately sweet and sour chicken to cement our friendship.

Minister for Defence - me
Scope: Mainly invovled in organising a "clothes-line parade" where we hang the OCS Mids Wing singlet as a show of strength. We are also looking into having our elite forces rappel across the clothes-lines with flashes of lights and heart stopping music going on in the background. Main job is to close windows and lock doors when we leave the house.

Minister for Sports - Wenzheng
Scope: Mainly invovled in purchasing tickets to go watch Real Madrid at estadia de Santiago Bernabeu, reminding ourselves on when the soccer days are and going to the pub to catch a game or two. Goal 20xx.

Minister for Home Affairs - me
Scope: In charge of general cleanliness of the house. Finger swipe tests once a month. Sniff tests once a year. Ensuring a steady supply of toilet paper and kitchen rolls. Uhuh.

Minister for Health - Wenzheng
Scope: Ensuring that the food that we try to cook is actually cooked and that we have consistently high culinary standards. Yum Yum!

Minister for Enjoyment - me
Scope: WHEEEE! Hola España!

Yup that wraps it up for our little cabinet for the moment. As always, we´re a little short on manpower, so anyone who wants to step forward please do! Warning: if anyone of you comes to visit, you will be roped into the local government! Haha.

He still moves stones

2004-09-04T14:45:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share with you guys something that my mom sent to me. It's a quote from the book He Still Moves Stones by Max Lucado. I think it's a reminder really of how we serve a God who is capable of even the impossible.

"I know of a stone in front of a tomb.
And i know it was removed.
And I also know there are stones in your path.
Stones that trip and stones that trap.
Stones too big for you.
The God who spoke still speaks.
The God who forgave still forgives.
The God who came still comes.
He comes into our world.
He comes into your world.
He comes to do what you can't .
He comes to move the stones that you can't budge.
Stones are no match for God.
Not then and not now.
He still moves stones."

Thanks mom.

culinary delights

2004-09-04T14:35:00.000-07:00

Hola!

So one of the best things that Wenzheng and I were looking forward to, (other than the opportunity to travel around Spain + Europe, learn Spanish, take the minimum course load and have good time), was the prospect of cooking for the very first time! Admittedly, we looked forward to it with trepidation and diarrohea pills. I asked my mom to teach me a little something so that i wouldn't go there and posion myself and she said that she really didn't know where to start teaching me, such was the extent of my ignorance. So anyhow, armed with a pinch of common sense, we decided to start cooking. The first night was spaghetti with sweet and sour wings and cabbage with clams.... which turned out quite okay lah.... other than the fact that the chicken wings weren't quite sweet and sour and the cabbage and clams is a strange combi. Still, we wen't ahead with it. The fact that I'm here typing my email should say something. Second night was some porridge/rice thingee and sweet and sour chicken breast. Will try to post a picture of that sometime soon. Stay tuned for more culinary forays into the unknown.

a home of our own

2004-09-01T03:52:00.000-07:00

so after about one week of shifting around from hostel to hostel, we finally managed to find an apartment that we will be able to call "home" in Madrid. We signed the contract at about 9 p.m. (strange huh... different culture = different working style) and started making a couple of trips to and from our temporary place at the hostel to lug the stuff over. We were done at around 10:30 p.m. and then it was time for dinner (we´re getting pretty good at this Spanish timing thing, no?)

The feeling of moving into our own apartment was fantástico. I can´t really describe it... i guess it was a combination of reasons, finally being able to settle down, to have a roof over our heads, not worrying about what to do on a day to day basis and all. And at least we could get started on it. It was the feeling of having lost, despaired, searched and to have the Lord provide that probably sums it up the best. It isn´t that fantastic an apartment and it´s kinda claustrophobic to be honest, but to be able to find this place that we could call our own in a land so far from Singapore was truly a blessing. When I stepped into the shower and closed the doors... oh man.... it´s pretty much as small as the showers onboard ship. Man!

There were, of course, other unforseen problems that cropped up - installation charges for the phonel lines, internet bills and all that, but through this whole episode, i think the Lord has been teaching me about dependence, knowing and trusting that he will take care of me through all this. Tough, but it´s been good. =)

Classes started this morning - Introductory Spanish. That went really well, the teacher is really nice and funny, I suspect that she´s from Catalunia, the region of which Barcelona is the capital. Our class is super-diverse, with people from all parts of the US, Iran, Germany, Switzerland, South Africa, Denmark, and of course our two cham-peons (note: this is not Spanish, to be said with an army twang) from Singapur. Good fun.

Went for brunch at this sandwich chain called Rodillas, where we got a little carried away trying out the different types of sandwiches - Bacon con Huevos, Salmon Ahumado, Jamon Serrano, Jamon Cocido, Cocktail de mar, Queso con nuez, Cheader y Jamon, Tortilla Paisana, etc. At 0.80€ a pop, they went down really quickly. Took a little walk around the neighbourhood and it´s back to school for PoliSci. Yawn. Perhaps it´s time for a siesta.

Hasta Luego!

Conquistas Españolas

2004-08-31T13:56:00.000-07:00

Went for a really really big lunch at the buffet place because 1. I was really hungry and 2. because I was really hungry. Don´t know if i mentioned this before, but in Spain, the custom is to eat a really heavy lunch at around 2 p.m. and then a lighter dinner at about 9 p.m. in the evening. Whee! The first couple of times it was really tough on my stomach, which is used to getting its lunch much earlier, but anyhow, totally immersion rite? Went for lunch at 2.30, and then came home for a nice long siesta (notice the pattern here?) and then left the hostel around 9 for dinner.

We decided, as Wenzheng put it very nicely, to "get lost", semi-aimless wanderings in search of a place to eat cheap food. We heard of this fabled Chinese bar/restaurant place hidden deep in the recesses of Madrid which sells exquisite fried noodles and guo tie (fried dumplings)... one day, we will find it! So we started walking, taking in the atmosphere and the sights and sounds of city that was just only coming to life. The ciudadanos de Madrid (citizens of Madrid) were returning from their holidays from all over Europe, and those that had retired for the evening were coming out to meet friends and enjoy a couple of drinks.

By chance, we wandered in the Plaza de Mayor (literally the Square of Elder) - man, the atmosphere was amazing. It´s this large courtyard surrounded on all sides by a continuous wall of houses/offices, much like a castle. Inside, little cafes or terrazas, formed yet another perimeter, where people could gather, sip their wines and watch the world go by. The lighting in the plaza was just enough to see the features of the place, but subtle enough not to disrupt the evening´s atmosphere. It was beautiful. Buskers, Comedians, Musicians, scattered across the plaza with little clusters of locals and tourists around them. We were spellbound.

Our aimless wanderings brought us next to the Museo de Palacio Real, a stately white building set on a hill overlooking the rest of Madrid. Gorgeous. We rounded off the trip at a local Halederia where i had some awesome chocolate blanco (white chocolate) and Málgada (lotsa rum and lotsa rasin). I was really thankful to God for the evening. I think that this past couple of days, of not being able to do very much, just waiting around to move into my apartment, just waiting around to start school and all has left me feeling rather frustrated - just not used to the feeling of not being able to do anything at all. Yet, through all of this, I felt that God was trying to teach me about patience, about learning to be still, and not having to do stuff all the time. The evening walk was good, going out there and appreciating the beauty of the land that I had the opportunity to be in. Wow.

Thank God.

2 days to school...

2004-08-30T12:49:00.000-07:00

¡España es un país muy hermoso!

Just thought that i´d echo a sentiment from the previous blog. Anyhow, here´s a little update on what´s going on in my life in Madrid. Over some cheap pasta (that looked remarkably similar to the microwave dinners that we get in Cali), Wenzheng and I came to the conclusion that we have yet to experience what Spain is "really" like. This is in part due to the fact that most of Spain shuts down in the month of August, which makes finding a place to eat dinner quite a troublesome affair. The human traffic is much lower, much fewer pickpockets around, etc. Anyhow, it´s a real blessing to be here. Thank God for that.

On Saturday, we decided to immerse ourselves totally in the Spanish culture and .... take a siesta! We didn´t actually sleep, despite the soporific effect of the scorching heat and the lassitude that washed over me. (sorry lah, GRE-hangover), but ended up chatting about life in general. That evening, we went (in true Singaporean fashion) to this buffet place which was going at 7.50€. If any of you come to visit, we will take you there! Mwahaha. It was quite authentic to be honest, and the food was really quite tasty. I guess the most disturbing part about it was that we couldn´t really figure out what we were eating! The sausages looked kinda off-colour, and the meatballs felt kinda softer than usual. But i digress. It certainly was a good meal all the same.

Sunday morning saw us going on one of the university-arranged trips to the Monasterio de Piedra (Monastery of Stone). Well, to be honest, the monastery has now been converted into a hotel, so i guess we went to see that instead. Yah. It was really nice though, the highlights being the sprawling park, the rather small waterfalls and travelling through tunnels cut into the mountain face hundreds of years ago. Apparently, this was the birthplace of chocolate in Europe! Surprising that the monks with all their asceticism could be the discoverers of chocolat. Maybe they ate it bitter. =) We got to meet many of the students that were also going to be enrolled at the university, most of them visiting students from all over. As my advisor mentioned - 65 nationalities represented in this small school, just like the United Nations, but without the problems!

We went back to the room after the trip, "nuah"-ed around for a bit, then went for dinner (cheap pasta) and then we went to watch the Real Madrid vs Mallorca game over some drinks. Apparently, Real Madrid is like the government´s team, and they are like supported by everyone, referees included. Not too sure how true that is though, but they sure aren´t playing like a championship team. Oh yes, and I was at Estadia de Santiago Bernabeu the other day and I saw that they were selling underwear with no. 23 printed over them. For guys and girls. Sheeshkebab!

Came to school today to settle some administration, but books and all that other stuff. Nothing much going on so far I guess. Do keep us in prayer for the housing situation, that all goes well with the contract and all and for safety for our time here. Oh yes, and something that i learnt while at the Monasterio: "Dios Bendiga cada rincon de esta casa" - "May God bless each corner of this house".

And I thought that this might be helpful http://babelfish.altavista.com/

God Bless

Bienvenido a la Madrid!

2004-08-27T18:47:00.000-07:00

Olla!

spent most of my last two days in an airplane. 13 hours to Heathrow, 3 hours to Barajas Aeropuerto. It´s been quite a stressful couple of days - so all you people who were thinking that this was going to be a stroll in the park, think again. =)

It was a good flight, watched "The Punisher" and "Welcome to Mooseport", no comments on either of them. For some strange reason, I had to go through customs again before catching my connecting flight. Almost missed my plane to Madrid. Arrived in Madrid, met Wenzheng, and then the drama began. So for those of you who were aware, Wenzheng and I managed to find this guy who was renting out his studio apartment for 375€/month. We didn´t want to stay on campus cos 1) we would be travelling around alot and 2) it was super expensive lah! So anyhow, we found this studio, signed the contract and all, and when we get to Madrid, he´s virtually uncontactable. Lugging all our suitcases around, we went up and down the metro, in and out of cafes, desperately trying to contact him and all, but to no avail. We decided to check into some hotel for a night or two, so as to plan what to do next.

So here we were, stuck in a totally foreign country, big communication barrier, no place to stay, lugging around tons of stuff. Sigh. I was seriously feeling very low, and I was really praying very hard for God to help us out of this situation. Looking back, we should have realised that this was something fishy - we almost never could get the guy by phone, though he would email us from time to time. Sigh. Tired and jetlagged, we turned in, thankful that at least we had found a place for the night. At that time, i was kinda wishing that i had never decided to study abroad in the first place - since it was a nonstanford programme, just arranging the flight tickets, approval from MSC, paperwork from school, visa applications, GRE, everything was quite a nightmare. sheesh.

Woke up at 3 in the morning, lay in bed for a while cos I was still jetlagged. The day´s experiences reminded me of the GRE incident, where i was just as helpless and stuck and i really had to turn to God for help in that situation. I think today, I really learnt what it meant to trust God to provide. Truly, God has been using my jetsetting experiences to the UK and now here teach me about dependence, to teach me about trust. I guess in part, I´m to blame for not choosing a safer housing option or maybe planning better, but He was able to use this to teach me about trusting Him even when i don´t see the light at the end of the tunnel.

Yet, today´s experiences affirmed for me that we serve a faithful God. We went to this apartment-finding place, and the guys offered us a studio apartment right away. 750€/month but at that point, we really wanted some peace of mind. He even managed to work out for us some interim housing arrangement, so that was perfect. The couple who were staying in the studio right now had only just decided to give it up at the end of this month, so it truly was quite a blessing. If we had come a day earlier or later, we would not have been able to get this studio. Praise God!

We decided to take a trip down to the university in the afternoon. We were warmly received and greeted, and the best part about it, we met this fellow Singaporean who was one of the faculty there at the Campus! You have no idea how good it was to meet a fellow countryman so far from home. (not to mention being able to speak English/Singlish!) Wow! We spent sometime chatting with him and we told him about our housing situation. He told us that 1) 375€ is an unbelievable price and 2) that 750€ was really quite a reasonable price for that studio apartment. We wandered around a little bit, and then found the internet labs where i´m typing this blog.

Some of you might be thinking that these are probably coincidences, and I must agree with you that these events do seem like they are, but for me, they are more than just random occurences of chance. Mainly because these were the things that i had entrusted to God and prayed over. For me, the way things turned out is evidence that God is faithful, and that he is watching over me every moment of the day, and that he cares about the little things in my life. It certainly it wonderful to know this.

Took a little jaunt around Madrid today - it truly is a beautiful city. Lots of, um, "natural beauty" as well... haha. Will keep you guys posted. And do keep Wenzheng and I in your prayers. For protection, for safety and that the housing thing works out well. (we´re not in the studio apartment yet, and we are only moving in at the end of month)

Que Dios te Bendiga (May God bless you!)

i feel that i should give my blogs more interesting titles...

2004-08-23T10:13:00.000-07:00

Yup, so that was the conclusion that i came to when i was surfin around and reading other people's blogs - they have the coolest captions and titles of their blogs and all. Amazing. Anyhow, it's been 7 days since i last posted and yes, i know i need to get the hang of updating people with what's going on in my life more regularly.

I ended work on Friday - spent the weekend with family, friends and trying to prepare for my GREs, which turned out to be quite an experience. So the things is that you need your passport to be able to sit for the GREs, which i didn't have, cos i sent my passport to the Spanish Embassy in Jakarta to apply for a Spanish Visa. All I had was a valid photo ID (my california driver's licence) and my good ole 11B, which were, in my opinion, suffcient validation of my identity. My passport was supposed to have come in last Thursday, but because of delays and mix ups in the courier service and all that other nonsense, my passport was "reportedly" sent to the Spanish embassy office rather than the Spanish Consulate or something like that. In short, no passport. The lady at the GRE registration counter was trying to do her job, so i guess she was rather sticky on insisting that i needed a passport to take the test. There was no option of postponing the test or even coming back another day to show her the passport.

45 minutes before the test started i rushed down to the Embassy to hope that my passport might have arrived there, waited there, but to no avail. Dejected, I came back to the test center and took the test, knowing that the examing body might simply cancel my test scores because of the passport issue. By that time i was rather shaken, cos the whole "what if this whole thing is going to waste?" question was hanging over my head. I was feeling very frustrated and started blaming people for messing things up for me - blaming the people at the consulate for messing up the courier stuff, blaming the GRE invigilators for being so inflexible, blaming everyone for just making things so difficult for me having to fly in for like 1 month and fly out again. I was really hoping that the Lord would come through for me on this one, but at that point, things really seemed quite dismal. All my efforts for the GRE might go to waste - not just the money, but all the time and effort and energy spent in taking and preparing for the test. Grrr.

I prayed to the Lord for peace to do the test, and I felt Him telling me not to worry about it and just do my best. I really thank Him providing me with the peace i needed to do my test. It wasn't fantastic, but for me, I know that the Lord was helping me through it. Leaving the test center, I was feeling both physically and emotionally drained, cos i didn't know what was going to happen - will they cancel the scores and let it stand. It was then that Phil 4:6-7 came to me:

"Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus"

Wow. I think it's times like this that we are called to live out what this verse means - to really "not be anxious" and to entrust everything into God's hands, and it is only then that we are able to receive His peace. It was something that i stuggled to do, cos i was still mulling over the problem in my head, and really getting myself more and more agitated over it.I still don't know what the outcome will be, but I know that God is in control of it all, and I believe, that's all the assurance that I need. =)

On another note, it's 2 more days before flying off to Spain, and boy am I tired! So many things to do, so little time. Ah well. Such is life. Met up with some good friends for dinner this evening by the Esplanade - i think that the little stretch of the river is really a lovely place, with little touristy boats chugging up and down the Singapore river with their "nav lights brightly beaming". Will definitely miss Singapore when it's time to leave.

Buenas Nouches
(goodnight)

getting into the hang of things

2004-08-16T18:03:00.000-07:00

7:30 a.m.

Back in the office. Nothing much to do today i guess - just turned in the major paper of my attachment yesterday. Trying to look through some GRE words - i mean, why would i want to know what intransigence, irascible, inure and innundate mean? Sheeshkebab.

Met up with a bunch of friends, mostly from Stanford, someother friends from army and way back. It was a really nice time just meeting up and all. So since i only just got this blogspot, i triumphantly told Kenneth and Greg about this new venture. And they just as quickly gave me an "Oh, Puh-lease" look followed by a "i'm so past-that" kinda look, followed by a "I-don't-want-to-read-about-your-life-cos-it-ain't-personalised" kinda look. Haha.

Admittedly, I'm like 5 generations behind in this whole blogging thing, and i actually thought that pple who blog are like super bo liao and free, but oh well, guess what we have here? Anyhow, back to last night's dinner - it was a great time catching up with friends, some of the pple whom i haven't seen for like years. Shout out to Kevin and Jianlong who just got back from the States. Man... i'm sure you all had a good time yah?
Beyond that, just being able to celebrate dinner with some of my closest friends made me realise that all these people were God's gift to me - God's gift of community, and throught their love, I catch a glimpse of what God's love is like. Through their lives, I learn what it means to follow God faithfully. Truly, it is a blessing to be able to spend this special occasion with them all.

It's been quite a mad rush - everytime i'm back, i think of it as a whirlwind sweeping through Singapore. At least that's what my mom claims my room is like everytime i'm back, all the tranquility and equilibrated peace disturbed. So many friends to meet, and i'm running out of dinners. Oh well. Not many more days more before I will be flying off. Ah yes, I really do/will miss Singapore. I've had a couple of requests now to get autographs from Beckham (mostly the girls ask me for this), and sometimes Zidane (mostly the guys in the know) and now Owen (mostly girls on this one too). Ah yes. I'll see what I can do yah?

God bless

blogging away

2004-08-16T15:40:00.000-07:00

Ah yes, so after a long while watching from the sidelines, I decided to start up my own blog. Will be flying off to Madrid in a couple of days, and I guess this would probably be the best way to keep everyone (esp my mom!!) updated on what's going on over here. To all my friends that i didn't get a chance to meet, my apologies, i've really really been quite busy. Olla Madrid! Ciao Singapore!

Keep your eyes on this page. Cheers.