looking on from the other side of the planet

strangely enough there has been such difficulty laying my hands on a computer. everyone uses a laptops, and laptops being portable.. well, they just aren't around to use most of the time.

justin: upon visiting penn, i just fell in love with it. so when i went back to check out Columbia and visit jia-yan i decided to just change my early d from Columbia to Penn. i really dunno how to describe the rationality of my decision. it's just that i felt at home? it's crazy. it's like how you fall in love with someone, and i fell in love with Penn. really hope that i can make it there. (but yeah i'm applying to Fu's engine for engineering management systems. still thinking how i'm gonna maximise my chances of entering Penn though..)

and in all honesty, i think we should all try our best to find a way to go overseas to study. i just cannot fully emphasize the education you receive about living and growing up. i have stayed in college student like conditions for these past 10 days, and there is just so much you have to do on your own, experiences which i don't think we'll fully comprehend if we remain in singapore. so daryl and mun you two are really lucky. i presume that oxbridge offers the same gruelling experiences that the US ppl face.

i cannot stop thinking how lucky i am to have gone on this trip. upon seeing the sights that america has to offer, my inner soul has somehow risen above the bright city lights to show me what my real journey is. conversations with gangwei and long hours of flying alone have made me look at life less objectively. to stop worrying about the image i portray, and just live. just enjoy. too often have i worried about accomplishing this and that and whether i might die young and stuff.

and it's only when you are overseas that you really miss all the stuff back in singapore. and also, i realise that army has also made me look at life more.. casually? like i have increased tolerance to the shitty things that come my way? i dunno. i feel like i've learnt to live better while holidaying. no doubt there has been the fun aspects and all the childish nonsense, but somehow behind it all i can feel that i'm ready to finally step out of teenhood and enter the adult world.
and i have seen and tasted this world over and over again.

anyway, so much for the self-discovery rambling. i will post a travel log soon and photos as well. for the moment me and gangwei have a combined total of 2gigs of pictures. so this is gonna be quite a mammoth task.

so glad that you guys are posting at last haha. i'm in berkeley now. no prizes for guessing my thoughts at this very moment.. bleh.