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.
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.
posted by hui at
9:09 AM
1 Comments:
that's so wonderful to hear:) i believe that u will have a God sem;)
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home