for the past few weeks, the highlight of my life has been planning for my grad trip.

whenever i'm sick of writing my final year paper, i would open a new tab in my browser, and google for travel logs. whenever i'm having my lunch, i would flip through the lonely planet to look for the key attractions. whenever i'm on the bus, i would go through some of the words that i can use in the foreign land. from reading up on places to go, places to shop, places to stay, places to eat; to picking up a completely new language; to reading on their culture and festivals, to drawing up an itinerary, the research and preparation has been such a exhilarating journey in itself.

strange as it sounds, i wish the grad trip would never come. because when it is over, i wouldn't know what else could bring me this much excitement.

especially to miss hilarious

there are three reasons why i wanted to dedicate a post to the person in the picture:

1. once when i was stuck with the responsibility of finding people for a certain camp and nobody could do the camp with me, she didn't abandon me. i didn't even have to beg her! she willingly went with me.
   
2. at 12midnight on a particular day, she sent me an email titled "welfare econs stuff" containing a file. thinking it was project related, i downloaded it. and to my surprise, it was a piano piece that she played and recorded (and chanted too! haha). you won't believe how touched i was.
   
3. and just when i thought i would be spending my grad trip alone, she was the first who said she would join me! now i don't have to be as worried about getting lost and staying in hotel rooms alone (for half of it at least!).
   

she is really a woman of her word. and to top it off, she's hilarious.

thank you cheryl! thank you for always being around.

after six gruelling months, thirty seven emails, three interviews, five chapters, eighty pages, twenty three thousand words, ten million deaths of brain cells,

all i need is one miracle now. (:

grrr, i want to bite someone

writing the discussion chapter has turned out to be more excruciating than i expect. ):

while i was on my way to my friend's place on thursday night, i got caught in a trail of slow moving cars. the road that i was stuck on happened to be where my alma mater resides, so as the bus crawled through the dimly lit street, i took my own walk down the memory lane.

the first stop was coronation plaza, where i spent many evenings with a group of hungry friends gobbling up lemon chicken rice and gossiping about people. the small eatery was always filled with the smell of oily fried chicken, the stench of sweaty boys dressed in khaki shorts and the chattering of students who patronised the place. and the icon of the place was none other than the plump auntie, who was always seen flirting with the boys and giving them extra sauce or rice.

then the bus moved and i found myself staring at the central plaza, where the strongest boys in the council gathered to hoist up hundreds of light bulbs for a particular mid-autumn festival. and then there was a phoenix that blazed in the night to celebrate the rebirth of the new batch of freshmen, and a huge chun to welcome the start of a new lunar year. unfortunately, our term ended before the year did, but i'm glad some friendships haven't.

further down, i reached the second avenue and i saw the three adolescents battling against the odds to run up the slope. the guy always reached the top first. and there, he would wait for the two other girls to catch up before they continue their jog back to the campus. it was december, and we were young and free.

then there was the sixth avenue, where i got lost in the first week of school, had my first cup of gelato, and watched someone eat (almost)raw egg for the first time.

finally, i reached the macs at king albert's park, where we celebrated our first month together in a colourful party room, wearing party hats that were meant for kids, sitting on chairs that we had outgrown, and eating happy meals that no longer filled our stomachs. but we had so much fun that we could not bear to leave that night. i wished we lingered on for a while.

but that was where the crossroad was. and that was where the jam ended. and the memories faded along with the slow moving traffic.

at the turn of the green light, the bus broke free and breezed through the streets. it was bus stops after bus stops and before long, i was at my destination.

and then i slowed down and wondered, how and why did i get here so fast.

with 15 days to the submission of my first draft, i am appalled by my own sloth.

i am going to post an ad that goes like this:

"Same plight? Let's share flight!
are you interested in flying to seoul on 3rd may and return on 20th may but can't find a cheap and comfortable flight?! let's fly SQ together at only $713 per person (taxes & surcharges incl; minimum 2 to go)! "

planning my grad trip has been so tiring.