...cos of Daylight Savings AGAIN.

I think I wrote earlier on about the effect of losing an hour, to sleep to study to do everything.

And it has happened AGAIN! in London! Argh.

Before coming on exchange I never experienced Daylight Savings. It was some far distant concept that would never affect my life.

Now, I've experienced it twice in 3 months. Ridiculous.

So where does all the time go?

After-Exchange Tour Around the World Part 1/3

(Photos and details when I get back to Singapore cos this place is freaking cold)

Finally I get to touch a computer! Candy's computer! I'm currently in her house in southeast London, and it's kinda surreal.We've never spent more than a few hours together ever since graduating from secondary school. And now we're gonna meet Michelle and spend a whole week altogether!

Yvette and Xiao Yun have gone back to their respective countries of exchange, namely Irvine, CA, USA and Grenoble, France. It's a bit weird, like the past 4 days in Paris and 4 days in London were all a dream.

Nevertheless, we had a blast! Paris was just too much to cover in 4 days alone. We did all the touristy stuff like the River Seine Cruise and the Eiffel Tower and Disneyland (Which compares BADLY to the Anaheim one), but also saw the Louvre and the Musee D'Orsay for intellectual stimulation. Tip: The Louvre is free for people under 26years on Fridays after 6pm! It was fun taking underground transport again and just walking around a city without worrying about parking. It was not fun however, converting everything in Euros to USD and then to Sing$. Heart attacks all around. And empty stomachs too cos we practically survived on bread.

We stayed in a 3 star hotel near the Gare de Lyon (Major train/RER/metro stop) so it was quite convenient and easy to find on the first day. XY arrived from Grenoble at that station too and found us severely jetlagged in the hotel room. Rats, plan to surprise her at the lobby - FAIL.

Alright, long story short for now, to be edited at a later date cos i gotta check my mail and apply for internship n special sem and whatnot.

so then we went to london and finally got our own beds (xy n i had to share in paris) then we visited all the touristy stuff in TWO days only but the markets were like awesome la. nice food!! singaporean stuff. West End on two nights. better transport. EVERYTHING IN PLAIN SIMPLE ENGLISH.

and now they're gone. and I'm still here. and the surreal world goes on.

(I miss the US. can't wait to go to Canada! all the touristy stuff's too overrated.)

...to the beginning of the end.

Live every day like it was your last.

I can happily say that we did live almost everyday here in Irvine like it was the last. 10 weeks really puts things into perspective/ I'm glad we tried to squeeze in every little thing that we could do into our weekends and treasured all the weekdays too. Even though school was such a drag sometimes.

I can't believe it's over!!!!! IT JUST HIT ME. I AM LEAVING IRVINE IN 5 HOURS!!! (and I haven't packed. joy.)

oh boo i guess the universal studios and chris tomlin posts won't get up today.

To everyone still on exchange:
GO OUT AND HAVE FUN. DON'T STAY HOME AND WATCH MOVIES. even if you do, invite tons of locals and other exchange students over!!

And so begins a new chapter - Hello Europe! (I WILL MISS YOU, IRVINE! YOU ROCK!)

to the Last Day of School. Almost.

Two papers down, two more to go!

Mixed and torn feelings about this.
Never been so happy to finish exams. Never been so sad to finish exams.

After my Coercive Diplomacy paper, my prof (who's the associate dean for social sciences) asked if I was staying for Spring Quarter, then he proceeded to interview me when I replied in the negative. Questions like my nationality/citizenship, my future plans, the languages I speak. Basically, he asked me to keep in touch so he could recommend me to intern/work at Washington D.C.

Yay! Another objective for this exchange accomplished - found a mentor for my post-grad studies.

No mood to study for tomorrow's papers :(
No mood to pack :(
Have mood to play with Tripit.com! (Travel site that keeps all your itinerary in one place)

...to the Undie Run at UCI

I was walking to the bus stop from the SS trailer, where we had the most boring and arghh review session for finals ever (cos it was like attending another lesson, and so much stuff that wasn't covered in lectures is gonna be on the finals?! we're not foreign policy experts!!).

Then I saw a few hundred people standing in their underwear in front of the flagpoles. In 9Celsius or 48Fahrenheit. With policemen standing around. It looked fun, but the bus was coming so I couldn't join in. haha.

Turns out, it was an Undie Run! The people ran all around campus, and through the Gateway study centre where veryone was so stressed. must have been a riot!

Check out the link to the run:
http://link.brightcove.com/services/link/bcpid1127694947/bclid1125901233/bctid16531382001

Happy studying, everyone!

...to Jars of Clay and Delirious?

Is this a ploy to get me to stay in California?

On March 18, the day before I leave, at 1.30pm there's a FREE Jars of Clay Concert at the Nokia Theatre in L.A.!!

At 7pm that night there's a Delirious? concert at House of Blues in Anaheim!!

Should I go??

I need to pack and sleep to drain all the stuff from finals out of my head!

but they are just THERE!

ahhhh!!!

MICE IN THE HOUSE!!

Update: William came over and deduced that the mouse lived under the oven. So we opened the bottom part and voila! A chicken bone (not from us, cos we don't eat chicken with bones), a tissue, and many droppings. Mickey was exposed!! Lois and Amanda proceeded to feed it a few grains of rice everyday to prevent it from coming out. It has not been seen or heard since.

MICKEY OR MINNIE IS LOOSE HERE!!

It all began with my hearing a "THWACK" sound on the kitchen floor. I turned my head to look and caught a glimpse of A TAIL attached to a BODY!!

After alerting my housemates to our situation in a rather out-of-character manner (they have never seen me scream before) we proceeded to investigate and to commence OPERATION CHASE THE RAT OUT - because Amanda "doesn't like to kill stuff." Lois corroborated my story with evidence of DROPPINGS in our room. Armed with chairs to stand on, our broom and vaccuum cleaner, we started opening all the kitchen cupboards to determine the location of the rodent.

Unfortunately, we failed. To accomplish anything except have weird conversations (we have video evidence of this). So I decided to take a shower. and then.

I FOUND DROPPINGS IN MY CLEAN CLOTHES!!!!

if they were in the dirty laundry pile, ok la can understand.

BUT THE CLOTHES WERE CLEAN. Now I have to do launder all my clothes. annoyed!!

We also found shit in the walk-in closet. Collected all shit samples to show our management office. There was enough to fill a small medicine bottle.

so grossed out right now. Supposed to blog about snowboarding and all my aches but I'm writing about mice instead. ARGH. We only left for a day!! And this happens!! Pretty sure the mice weren't around before cos we had to pack for our trip and there was no sign of the creatures.

Lois made an observation. First we were visited by Deborah, then Daphne, and now the mice. hahahaha!

We smell a rat here.

...but went to Universal Studios and saw Chris Tomlin in Concert!

...my lights cover dropped, and my car got towed.

I am supremely annoyed now.

Last night was a totally rocking Chris Tomlin concert, of which I will talk about in a later post.
One of the other exchange students agreed to come to church with us this morning.
Another one could make it only for small group, so both of them are coming to discover their Purpose Driven Life.
I am leading the discussion tonight.

And that is why the devil is trying to obstruct God's will.

Last night after I got back at 2am, there was no place to park cos someone else parked in my lot. There was NO other lot available on the curbside. Not even at the leasing office.
So I parked at the Permit Parking lots, assuming I had the right to park in my own apartment vicinity and not have to cross hell and high water just to get my car a resting place. Besides, it's not safe to walk around alone at 2am.

Guess what. THEY TOWED IT AWAY. In the mere SIX HOURS I left it there.
Thing is, if I parked in another resident's lot, I still might have gotten towed.
Result: Missing Church at the main campus. Missing another day at Universal Studios.

Another thing happened. The cover for the lights in my kitchen fell out.
It's not like the plastic covers of the same kind in hall.
This one's plastic but attached using Plywood and Steel bars.
I was standing in that kitchen just a min or two before the thing tumbled down in this massive ripping-cracking noise.
I would have had serious head injuries.

The thing that dropped.
Moved it so people could walk in there.

But I don't. I'm still alive. And I can have church right here in my own home. While I'm waiting for the apartment manager to get to work at 12pm. There's another church service at 4.30pm. We're still going for small group.

I CHOOSE TO PRAISE GOD IN THIS CIRCUMSTANCE.
I don't care what the world throws at me now. It's gonna be alright.
Cos I know my God saved the day and I know His word never fails.
And I know my God made a way for me. It's gonna be alright!

The enemy's been defeated, death couldn't hold You down.
Gonna lift our voice in victory. Gonna make our praises LOUD.

We will sing sing sing and make music with the heavens.
We will sing sing sing grateful that you hear us when we shout your praise.
Lift high the name of Jesus!

PDL Day 25:
"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose." -Romans 8:28

Update:
Luan came to drive Ka Ho and I to the impound and we got the car back for $180 instead of $270. How many people get driven by a royal? And the charges were reduced.
We managed to catch the 4.30pm service after lunch at Luan's fave Viet restaurant. Nailed all my unforgiveness to the cross. felt good.
Small group discussion was GREAT. Leo and Ka Ho were blessed I think. The others were challenged by questions such as "why does Christianity deem other religions false" and "what are the conditions for heaven?"
Awesome stuff. 14 ppl came for cell in total.
still need more prayer!!