new york

i feel obliged to tell you all about my new york trip. because not telling you will be like disrupting the flow of my stay here in penn state. hahs. we reached new york on friday afternoon, about 2pm and only headed to the city at about 4pm? at the end of the day, if given a choice, i think i'd rather go elsewhere with more nature rather than new york.

new york is a city full of life. it never sleeps. it's full of people from all around the world. every where you go, you see people, yellow taxis and more people. there is no one corner you go without seeing someone else. anyways. the subways are dirty and VERY hot. the trains take very long to come, and people in singapore complain about the inefficiency of our public transport system. the city is big. very big. and my feet hurts from walking from one place to another.

places we went on friday: grand central terminal, central park and times square. i walked into the mega big toys 'r' us again, but there was no excitement like there was the previous time. i realised that i dont normally do things 2 times. it's harder to appreciate it. esp if its nothing to admire or slowly enjoy. and when i looked at the spot where we (car, sherron, joa and i) went to to get this funky toy for ernie, now in that same tray, they sold talking pigs. hahas. times square was its usual buzzy self. full of life and lights and noise.

on saturday we went to wall street to see the new york stock exchange, the bull, went to the ferry point where ppl take the ferry to the statue of liberty. (queue was too long), chinatown for lunch then to the brooklyn bridge (where i rmb that fateful day). next united nations building, back to central park then chinatown again for dinner and then headed back to the carpark. it was really crowded on saturday. there was this bike marathon thing, and they closed off some of the main roads to let bikers ride on them. central park was nice. but i prefer it in spring where the trees are either still barren or just about to grow back its leaves. it was just way too crowded for my liking. a park is meant to be peaceful. not jammed packed with ppl. i think new york was nicer the last time i came with car and gang. it was cold. but it was more peaceful.



i'm not too excited as you can tell. hahas. ohwells. anywyas, i'm in my new room now. with my new roommate. she's nice. =) and some other ppl along the hallway just popped in to introduce themselves. really friendly ppl.... =) tomorrow is my first day of school. excited but nervous. i don't really know wad to expect. handball, fencing, some sports ethics class and also stats in sports. hahas. weird. and everyone who reads this. i need your prayers. my units here are not fully settled and i cant get into some classes that i need to. so pray that i'll get into KINES 360 and KINES 422. and that God will provide!! thanks all. i'm sleeeepy. goodnight.

the niagara falls

yesterday my dad and i decided to head down to the american side of the niagara falls to see if we could catch the sunset. as we were driving, i was just really surprised how built up the area was... and i commented that i could not imagine that niagara falls was only about 20mins drive away. when we reached there, it was like a resort. surrounded by hotels, casinos, theme parks etc. to be honest, i was disappointed. i thought i was heading towards some jungle forested area, and we'd have to hike some path to get to the falls. but i was wrong.

however, after visiting the canadian side of the falls today, i have changed my mind. the niagara falls is truly majestic and beautiful in its very own special way. there are seriously hardly any words to describe it. it was so surreal. we started off by walking to the back of the falls. and to some observation platform right beside the falls. we were getting wet but i was enjoying every bit of it. just feeling the water from the falls splashing onto my face, and hearing the might of the water as it cascaded down. i felt like a small girl, playing in the rain, running about in the puddles and in my own little imagination world. hahas.




next we went to this 4D animation thing that taught us about the how the falls came about. the main character was a chipmunk. made me miss my bestie a lot. but i know our friendship is in God's hands, and he is slowly moulding our friendship to become an even more beautiful one. =)

we went to the whirlpool next. wow. the rapids were massive. it's hard to imagine how ppl could survive in it. yet there were stories of ppl who survived the rapids in a barrel. some swam in it, some tightope above it, others took the boat out. many lives were lost. not all survived. and i don't quite understand why they would do it too. to risk their lives for fame.

i saw quite a few amish families today around the park. makes me wonder if any christian missionaries reach out to them. aren't they fated to live in their small lil community, away from the world and have hardly any chance to hear the redeeming story of Christ?

last but not least, we went on to the maid of the mist. it was such an adventure. the best part was when the maid of the mist (the boat/cruise ship) was just below the horseshoe falls. as i looked around, i was surrounded by the falls. mesmerized by its beauty and might. the boat was "struggling" to move fwd because of the strong currents below. a lil boy beside me shouting "look mummy! water fall!" hahas. and my dad shouting with the camera "look here yihui!" but apart from all that "distraction" i was really lost for words. it's like being in a lost world you know?? but with blue ponchos on. hahs. i wish i could stay there all day and just busk in the Glory of God's creation. i could so imagine the sun rays, shining through the mist, forming beautiful rainbows and bright little specks of gold dust sprinkled all around. and little fairies too!

there's so much more to say. like how the waters fell off the edge of cliff. it looked like glassy, clear green water flowing smoothly off the cliff gracefully like... velvet. hahas. i think my descriptions are spoiling the real beauty of it. i shall stop here. but i rmb the thought as i saw this sight. "God, your grace is never ending, overflowing"



goodnight peeps. love you.

course watching

the campus is SOOOO HUGEEE! i'm dying walking from one place to another. i miss my bike in aussie. =(

my dad was supposed to be here about 12-1. but he's still not here, and i'm still rotting here waiting for him. or rather resting. cuz the earlier part of the day was just crazy. i walked to the bank to collect my debit card, but it wasn't ready. then i walked to bouke building to try get my visa paper signed so that i can cross borders today and re-enter the states with no problem. but the lady said i had to pay my school fees first. so i decided to walk to my hall first to get some stuff, then i went to pay my fees, and then back to bouke to get my papers signed then here at lunch. each walking trip took AT LEAST 20minutes and it wasn't even up and down campus. it's just all over!! imagine how big this place is.. and you know how much i hate walking.... bleah

i can't believe i'm sitting here watching my penn state email. i'm doing this thing called course watching. that is, waiting for ppl to drop out of the class so that i can get in. out of my 4 units, i only got 2. and i can't get into 2 of my classes which are supposed to replace my cores back in aussie. so i'm kinda stuck. i also didn't get my fly fishing and sea kayaking! how sad is that. =( but i'm watching it now!! hopefully someone drops it and i grab it in time, for now, i enrolled myself into judo, fencing and bball. i can't decide which i want. i only chose them cuz some ppl dropped them and they were the only free ones. and women's bball here is number one in the whole of US. so.... must be quite a thing to do a bball class here i reckon.

i also moved into my permanent residence today.. i did some unpacking just now, and got my room in order. my room is so-so. tommy more is much better. (L block i mean) other than the fact that they provide a fridge and microwave here. and i can choose where i want to eat anywhere on campus. i also did some praying in my room so that God can take precedence there. =) so far through my exchanges through email with my roomy, i think she's nice. her name is dominique alexis williams. oh and i stay in cross halls, which apparently has a lot of the sorority girls staying there. don't know if that's good or bad. we'll see!

my three friends took a bus to new york today. so i'm kinda left alone. waiting for my dad and munching on my turkey chiptole sandwich which costs 5.99. so not worth it. cuz it made me full so fast and it was kinda dry... i would have much preferred soup which was only 2.99.

i feel like i'm blogging point to point. but i don't really care. i just wanna go niagara falls now. hahas.

penn state beginnings.

after today, my conclusion about penn state... it's AMAZING! i think it's gonna be a really good semester with God.

On the first day of arriving, nothing much happened. it was just admin after admin. running from one building to another with my dad trying to fix up everything. in a way, i'm not that independent cuz i have my dad with me. but i'm pretty sure i'd have survive just the same without him. BUT!!!!! i am sooo glad he came. =) hehe. it really helps a lot, cuz going to walmart by yourself is a pain. esp on the first day of school when you have no friends, man, that's really sad. i actually felt quite lonely the first few days. i told God: God, you seriously want me to have a semester of isolation?! i'm going to DIEEEE! hahas. anyways. so i arrived on mon, my dad left on wed night. so since thurs, i have been learning independence. going around making new friends, and going for random activities. let me just enlighten you.

thurs: met 3 english guys. (their accent is sooo adorable! hahas) 1 scottish girl and my aussie UWA friend. hung out with them the whole day, going to some talks and playing cards. there, i met 1 mexican guy, 1 more aussie guy from melbourne and another english guy. pretty cool hur.

friday: went for some exchange students talk and i found singaporeans!! HAHA. you wouldn't believe how thrilled i was. however, all the students for nus had weird accents. which i then realised later that they were not singaporeans, they were from china and one was south indian. another guy sounded singaporean. but his english wasnt good. his singlish was reaaaallllyyy strong. ANYWAYS.. the good news was, i found a girl who's studying in unsw, sydney, who is singaporean! hahas. that was when i was reallyyy happy. i thought i was the only crazy person who would do such a thing. but no!! i found another singaporean doing exactly the same thing as me. her name is shawna, and was from hwa chong, 88 batch and she's reallyy nice. she's my new buddy. =)
so we hung out the whole day, went for some market tour where we saw amish ppl. really interesting. i'll post the pics on fb. then we also decided to sign up for laser tag that night.
i went for dinner alone (without shawna) and signed up for some dinner tour. we went to this american restaurant. i met 2 french girls and the orientation ldrs were american and chinese. it was nice time hanging out with them
i wore my team SA shirt to laser tag. and just as i was at the sign up booth where we were supposed to meet, i had this guy called ziran who suddenly came up to me and went "singaporean right? SA?" i was like CRAP! i gave myself away. hahahas. but this guy is kinda weird. he "stalked" me on fb. hahas. ohwells. as shawna and i were walking with the group to the laser tag place, this other guy approached me and said "hey, you're from SA?" hahas. my shirt seriously gave me away, but i guess it's a fast way of making new friends from singapore. his name is leon, and we've been hanging out too. laser tag was REALLY fun. went around screaming and shouting. ppl i met: 2 black swiss guys, 2 korean guys, 2 french guys and 1 from germany. i dont know where the rest were from. i think one guy was from iraq or something. i scored 3rd highest player out of 14 players. not bad hur!! and it was 10 bucks for the whole hour, 3 games. =)

sat: signed up for a vertical challenge thing. basically it was a rope challenge. met MORE ppl. 1 indian, 2 french, 1 iranian girl, the bunch of guys i hung out with on the first day, 1 korean girl who's been studying in the states for 8 yrs, 1 holland guy (who was REALLY funny), one aussie guy and leon's roommate arnold who is malaysian. it was quite a fun time we had.
came back and we all had lunch tog. i had a burger, and it was HUGE!! that became my only meal of the day.
by the end of that day, i have a pack now. i hang out with shawna the singaporean girl who studies in unsw, leon who's from nus who also studied in SA before, 87 batch and his roommate arnold. only leon's not christian. he's catholic =P at night which we were at the common area, a korean guy in his 40s came up to us and preach to us the gospel. quite cool.

sun: TODAY!!! i went to church with the four of them. we went to calvary baptist church. it reminded me of home. we sang songs that we sing at riverlife. oh happy day, oh how he loves, hosanna, some other chris tomlin songs that i knew. it's predominantly american. only asians were students. but very few. i kinda like it there. but i guess i'll still hop around a bit. after church we had lunch at chiptole, mexican food. it was quite yummy. just that i don't like beans a lot. i'll pass the beans the next time. but there was rice, beef, sour cream and cheese inside the wrap. very yummy. chopped up tomatoes too! we went to walmart after and amused ourselves with the really cheap food etc. i got my prepaid phone too. =) i am now officially contactable.

NOWWW. coming to the most amazing part. we went to the international ministries picnic when we came back from walmart at 4plus 5. we played some games and hung around. nothing much. but i met this english girl from UK. her name is caroline =)) she's really nice. (the caroline i know in singapore is nice -winks-) yeah, we played a bit of ball tog then we had dinner which was provided. just as we finished eating, this american couple joined our table. which consisted of arnold, shawna, caroline and i. leon had gone out to drink with ziran (the fb stalker. hahas). This white couple apparently has 7 kids. out of which 4 are adopted and there was one more coming! 2 were from haiti and the other girl's black too, but i do not know from where. (i'm sorry i'm using colours to differentiate them, but it's just for a slightly easier way of describing) one of adopted kids was blind and mentally disabled, from serbia, white. we talked about a lot of things. from mining in pennsylvania, to gangs in mexico, haircuts (cuz the husband is a hair stylist) to how to get good resumes etc. another lady also joined our table after a while. and she had 8 kids, 3 were adopted and 1 more was coming. then we went onto the topic of adoption.

it really opened my eyes to see that there are such ppl out there, doing the little they can to totally change a person's life and "destiny" so-called. and they really went all out. the kids they adopted were not the cutest kids (though they were adorable actually) but they had their own set of health problems, emotional issues, and of course you'd know that these kids need A LOT of love.... and these ppl, really loved them as their own. hearing the guy say, yes son? (to his haiti son, 2 half yrs old) and kissing his haiti daughter (4yrs old) on the cheek, stroking his blind and mentally disabled son (about 6?). there were so so so many other things. his other black daughter (11 yrs old), american-ised alr, came up to him and was like saying "daddy! blah blah blah" and she had her arms around his as they sat together, and she leaned on his arm/shoulder. the 2.5 haiti boy held on tightly to the mum a lot and he looked really cute. the 4 yr old girl has learnt A LOT of english just staying 6 months in america. she's really smart. and the couple kept on praising their kids in front of us.

i was just sooo moved by how this couple loved their kids so much. and how they kept praising them, and as they were showing love to us international students, they constantly showered soooo much love on their own. their hearts are so so so big!!! they looked like a very very happy couple. they didn't talk about God, but their actions shouted out so loudly that they loved God and His people. the other lady too, was both looking out for her own kids as well as this couple's kids. the whole time i just sat there, speechless in my heart. though still engaging in conversation on the outside. These people, were walking in their calling, making a difference in whatever way they could.

i'm really quite lost for words now, though i have many thoughts. they have reflected to me, how God can love us all. How much God loves me for me. How you do your part to make a difference in this world. How contented you can be just walking with God, etc.

i believe with all of my heart, that i have a lot to learn this semester. it is not all about play and study. i am where God wants me to be.