3 days ago, my plane touched down at changi airport. after 24 hours of travelling across the globe, and 4 months of exchange, i arrived in Singapore.

the heat hit me immediately. when they announced the temperature on the plane, (30degrees celcius)- little buddy, her sister and i looked at each other. it was a 40 degree change from where we came from. canada is a cold place.

my dad and my cousin dan came to get me at the airport. dan was holding a card with my name and flight number on it, which was really cute! and my dad was wearing the tshirt i bought for him, which says 'my kid and my money go to mcmaster university' which was really cute too hahaha!

first thing we had was laksa, popiah, roti john and some kuehs. singaporean food yo! the heat was intense, i almost felt like i couldnt breathe. - no kidding!

ohmy, i'm back in singapore. school's starting next week. i need help dealing with reality. but i'm skipping the first day of school HAHA.

okay, so within the span of 4 months, i travelled from toronto to newyork and vice versa about..6 times. which makes 3 trips to newyork. haha! travelling time is about 10-12 hours each way. so i'm proud to say that i'm rather familiar with manhattan!

i love the museums! the metropolitan museum (MET) and the museum of natural history (where the night at the museum was filmed). we spent a day each in both. haha! and then there's times square, central park - to play with snow, and yummy food hunts! food hunting is one of my favourite things to do now. breakfast think of lunch, lunch think of dinner, dinner think of breakfast, and the cycle repeats itself. i also made it a point to visit the upper east side, and palace hotel because of gossip girl. palace hotel looks exactly the same as the show, from the outside! pretended i was gonna visit chuck bass. HAHA! one time i needed to pee, so i just randomly went into this super posh building, only to find out it's the waldorf astoria ( blair!). one of the poshest hotels ever! newyork is a cool place.

we did our countdown in nyc. but no, we didnt do the times square countdown. the number of people scared us off. one million as a rough estimate! so i bought the 2010 sunglasses and we sat in our funky hostel room counting down. hahaha! before that we had one of the best pizzas i've ever eaten, and yummy cake! newyork style. hoho!

my parents and cousins came over to newyork. we joined a tour and travelled around the eastern side of US and Canada, together with little buddy, her sister, and gurveen. it was a 8 day tour. pretty much touch and go - my dad calls it guerilla warfare HAHAHA. but it satisfied what we wanted to do, which was good! would be even better if it brought us to quebec city too!

there's so much to talk about! but i guess i'll stop here.

i'm having mosquito bites for the first time in 4 months! and i've been automatically waking up at 6am everyday. must be the jetlag!

ohohoh. i forgot that the 50cent coin existed in singapore. i was thinking two quarters! hahaha!

mygoodness. i've been in canada for 3 months and i havent updated this place at all! but that's because i've been writing in my explorer book. hahahaha! it's from the 5th floor of ion which makes it really cool. THANK YOU ELISEEEE. if you still read this hahaha.

- looks through diary for stuff that are interesting -

since it's 3 months worth of stuff, i'll do it point form. HAHA.

1) yesterday little buddy (tricia) and i had Thanksgiving dinner at Charlotte's place! It's Thanksgiving for the US, Canada's one was last month. my first time ever celebrating Thanksgiving! We helped her mum prepare dinner. i helped with the beans and both of us helped with greasing the turkey for a bit! for dinner we had turkey with cranberry sauce, stuffing, yam, squash, and ended the meal with pumpkin pie with whipped cream! awesomeee stuff. after dinner we sat by the fireplace to warm our hands and feet which was really nice.

2) i sang in front of church once hahaha. i think it was 2 weeks ago. i walked into church with my hair still wet and with my coat unbuttoned not expecting to go up front to sing. but i saw the rest of the college students in front, and before i knew it i was at the front too! we sang 'in christ alone'. we sang it once at the college dinner but that was about it! hahaha. my first time singing in front of the church but it was fun!

3) attended the international students exchange dinner. had a glass of wine on an empty stomach and felt superly dizzy, and at that time i was talking to the Asst Dean of Social Sciences. hope i was coherent hahahah. cant exactly remember what we were talking about. i think it was something about the cold weather. HAHA. was going to sit at the table with the other Singaporeans, but someone came to our table asking if anyone could speak Mandarin. Little buddy and i volunteered. little did we expect to sit on the President's table. So i sat next to the President of Mcmaster. his daughter is adopted from China and they wanted her to practice her mandarin. ( me speaking mandarin hahaha) but anyways i guess sitting next to the President is an experience alright!

4) Someone mistook little buddy and i to be from Trinadad. HAHAHA. it was some salesgirl at 'campus crew'. i guess it's our accents. which is quite funny - like Trinadad?! i asked her if Trinadad is in africa or something.

5) while shopping for Halloween costumes, the salesgirl at the shop asked if little buddy and i were british HAHAHA. from Trinadad to England yo! she said she really liked our accents, and wanted it too. which i found reallyyyy strange. first time anyone thought i was brit!

6) halloween was celebrated on a boat in toronto. i was an angel with a strange hat. we went with our Mexican friend Jow, whom we met on our trip to NYC. and after this party we went to the afterparty at this club called government or something. i dont like clubs at all, but went cos it was free. we didnt book any accomodation that night, so after that we went to mcdonalds to wait till morning to catch the first bus back to hamilton. it was there that my stomach started to hurt REAL BAD. it was gastric pains. it was 4am in the morning, there was no medicine available and all the shops were closed. with tricia's help, somehow i managed to get to the bus station. and it was there i puked 3 times in the public toilet. absolutely terribly horrible. somehow i managed to make my way back to hamilton. but i guess it's an experience too. how often do you vomit in a public toilet in toronto in the wee hours of the morning 3 times? hahaha.

7) tricia and i nearly burned our school down. hahaha okay that was an exaggeration. but uhh we set a bagel toaster on fire. we stupidly put croissants into a bagel toaster which had the heat set super high. flames started coming out of the toaster, and people walking by were shocked beyond belief hahaha. good thing one girl told us to turn off the machine - which stopped the flames. the croissants came out totally black, and so we got new ones. but i found this whole thing superly funny hahaha!

8) my black gap jacket which i like very much got stuck in the washing machine. not sure how i managed to do that, but no matter what i did, i could get it out. kept laughing cos i think having a jacket stuck in the washing machine was really funny. the guy from china staying here helped me get it out! so phewww. the hood's string is still trapped in there though.

okay these are just the funny things that happened recently. 3 months is a lot to write about!

exchange is really fun. :D

i think there are many reasons to Thank God today.

1) I remembered to check if my wireless transaction to Canada has been settled. Only to realise there was still 15 which was not paid cos the bank forgot to take into account the agent fee on the other side. Thank God i checked just before intending to go to the bank!

2) I managed to settle everything at the bank all by myself. the bank people were really nice friendly and kind. they helped me settle the problem. YAY. and i managed to do the bank draft. so Thank God for all that!

3) it sorta rained, which means i dont have to go help my auntie water her plants. HAHA. i think! i sorta volunteered to help her water her plants cos her maid went back for a month. but her garden is huge and watering those plants is really no joke. the last time i did i was drenched and muddy. it's actually quite fun playing with the water hose but must be in the right mood haha! tiring stuff. so Thank God it rained! (ohno think i still must go water the plants. dang! )

yep that's about it.

summary of summer.

i did these collages because i'm relatively free, and in preparation for Canada. HAHA.