RAWA: THE POSES

So I was looking through the Rawa photos again, and for some reason I was INTRIGUED BY HOW MUCH RIDONKULOUS POSING THERE WAS EVERY FEW PHOTOS. It was seriously too funny not to post up. (I realised I only did a really short post on Rawa with a few photos! So no harm posting more out of the 2 albums worth)

I would like to particularly highlight the main 2 culprits of this posing madness.

#1 Quentin Lee

OKAY SERIOUSLY!? I AM DYING. AHAHAHHA PLEASE LOOK AT THE LAST ONE ITS SO FUNNY AHHAHAHAHAHAHA  (Quen pls forgive me but I really need to share this with the world)

Ok, not that my Korean is any better.

#2 PAEK YONG JOON

Just cos he is Korean doesn’t excuse him from this ridiculous madness.

And really strange things happen when you pair the guys together..

PLS LOOK AT ANDREW. HAHAHAHAHA ZOMG. I NEVER SAW IT UNTIL NOW.

Oh….kay.

And when you put ALL OF THEM TOGETHER:

There must be something about the island that brings out this side of them. AHAHAHA GOOD TIMES.

x

BKK in pano

I promised BKK pictures, and here’s the first post of them. MY PANORAMIC SHOTS. So I decided to get the Pano app while I was there firstly cos I needed to capture the full awesomeness that was our service apartment.

Also, for those who are thinking HOWCOMEIGOTSOMUCHMONEYTOTHROWAROUND, the answer is I DON’T and that we got this apt for like the best deal ever. To give you an idea, I paid ~$300 for my FLIGHT AND SIX NIGHTS in the apartment. EAT. THAT.

The living area. Complete with CABLE TV (WE LOVE CABLE) & a fully-equipped KITCHEN (there were even tupperwares. TUPPERWARES.) Apartment also came with two bedrooms and two toilets. Photos for that later.

Here are some other panos I took. Pardon my FAIL noob pano skills.. BKK has too much MOVEMENT in the air, there’s no way I can capture perfect pano shots in places like Chatuchak:

Heehee note the alien HAND emerging from Cheryl’s arm. Whuut.

This was taken on the bridge across Platinum mall. Look closely to see where my pano messes up. My bad!

Gone!

Going to be away @ BKK for the next 6 days. PLEASE PRAY FOR SAFETY and if anything happens, I LOVE YOU ALL xo

HONGAKONGA

SNIPSNAPS from Hong Kong. (LATE!)

We were much too preoccupied with other things to take much photos. But here’s some worthy shots.

I left Cheryl at this store and went to walk around and half an hour later she was still here. In this same position. Haggling with the woman.

AS FEATURED PREVIOUSLY (‘featured’. HA. ima so delusional), the strange HK street food that everybody loves! Except us, I suppose.

Some loot. DISCLAIMER: Half of this (or more) is Cheryl’s. HAHAHA. Shove the blame..

Our staple. BUBBLE MILK TEA EVERYDAY. And once again, weird street food makes an appearance.

Ah yes. Who can forget the strange looking intestine thing that to this day we still don’t know what it is.

THE FIRST THING THAT CAME TO MY MIND WAS THIS:

And yes, those are URSULA’S IMPRISONED MERPEOPLE from The Little Mermaid. {I actually went to take a screencap of this – I had to plug in my hard drive and everything. I’m such a dedicated blogger.} But to tell the truth, the weird food was actually GOOD.

Dinnering with my godparents :) THE FOOD TWAS INSANITY. I heart my godparents.

And last but not least, a photo of the lovely guardians that brought us out of the country :)

THE HK VLOG

SURPRISE!

My very first video log of my HK trip last weekend!

And you know what? I realised that I LOVE MAKING VIDEOS.

Not just taking them, but also editing, splicing, choosing music, etc. Man, I love it. I really enjoyed myself the past hour or so making this and I hope you enjoy it too! (Well, I don’t know if you will.. its more narcissistic than anything else. Haha!)

As this is my first time taking videos with my IPhone, you will notice the following NOOB mistakes I make:

x some clips are upside down – don’t know how to rotate them on my laptop :(

x SHAKY FOOTAGE

x my voice is really soft (esp the beginning); I think I covered the mic while holding it.

x in other news, i had fun with the annotations thingy on youtube. might have gone a bit overboard with it tho.. oh well.

x

I promise I’ll try and improve the next time! Whenever that next time will be..

For now, presenting my first vlog: HK edition :)

x

What do you think? DYULIKEITDYULIKEIT.

:)

Home

Back from the HK weekend hiatus.

I just spent the last hour unpacking EVERYTHING (cos I really hate having a backlog of things to unpack and then sort out all over again – learnt my mistake from last year’s trips), and now I am sitting in front of le laptop feeling wasted. AND I have to get up early to do my essay tomorrow. Whoopee! Fun times.

Speaking of which, the weekend WAS a bit surreal, it kinda felt like the cousin and I got swept into this supermassiveblackhole of which time did not pass at all. It kinda just swallowed us in and spat us out right where we began. I don’t quite know how to describe the feeling. The only difference is we emerged from thehole with much more baggage. Definitely not complaining.

I got YJ a pair of Pokemon bedroom slippers. Yknow those big furry ones. Yeah, this one has big yellow Pikachu faces sticking out at the toes. And I don’t care how embarrassing it is, he’d better be stomping around NZ in it when it gets shipped there.

Its been a long day. A NEW WEEK BECKONS.

xo

For the weekend

Lets hope this weekend will do some therapy for my soul. Retail therapy :D

Na not just that; also spending time with my long-lost cousin CHERYLSARAHLEE and being in a different place. Need to do some searching, some healing, some strengthening..

I’m thinking really hard about how to articulate how I’ve been feeling recently and such and I don’t quite know what to say other than this:

I just want to be happy.

That’s all.

:)

Cruz

To illustrate a little about the fatass episode I mentioned in the previous entry, here’s some snapshots of Santa Cruz,  April 2009.

<3

First helping of the Indian buffet that we ate and were bloated ttm after.

Conversation about 30 seconds before we entered Cold Stone:

Me: ZOMG I’M SO FULL I’M GOING TO DIE.

YJ: YA ME TOO. Let’s walk it off..

Me: *POINTS* EH!! COLD STONE!! WE HAVE TO EAT COLD STONE!!

YJ: (with a disgusted face) You’re such a fatass.

x

Definitely one our best conversations.

ISLAND LIFE LOVE IT

Highlights from the Rawa Trip (o5-07/02).

Welcome to Paradise.

Where the sand is white, the sky is blue, and the sea is emerald.

We got upgraded to Beach Front lodging FOR FREE. RAWA LOVES US.

Swimming around in awesomeness.

SNORKELING.

(MY FIRST TIME SNORKELING CAN I TELL YOU HOW AMAZING IT WAS I LOVE FISH I LOVE FISH!! I MISS YOU COLOURFUL FISH)

Pretending to be NA’VI in the hammock.

The best meals/buffets in the world (TEA TEA TEA PLEASE).

Chilling by the jetty after meals.

SUSHI (or so we thought was its name) the island dog who followed us around Everywhere. On the last night, it fell asleep in the sand next to us while we were talking :)

“What happens in Rawa, stays in Rawa” time with some of the best people ever.

Taking an entire series of M-18 DISTURBING TTM photos of the guys.

(Let me draw your attention to Quentin’s HAND)

Watching the sunset on this amazing island.

Mahjong and drinks into the night.

H2H and toasting champagne under the stars.

An epic weekend. I love you guys.

:)

Vista

The beauty of creation on such a tiny island.

{Panoramic shots of Rawa island via Quen.}

x The side of the beach that we went snorkeling

x The view from our beachfront suites (which we got upgraded to FOR FREE!)

x The beach right outside our windows

x The island at sunset

:)

Trust me, there are like 800 photos on Andrew’s camera – so there’s gona be alot of Rawa-centric photos coming up!

Everything looks perfect from far away

Come down now, they’ll say.

Pulau Rawa

Back from paradise.

I’m going to have a humongous backlog of posting to do once YJ leaves. In the meantime while he is still here, I shall carpe diem.

The daytrip

One day, we decided to venture across the border on bus 170.

The highlight of the entire trip?

EATING.

B-grade Kenny Rogers. But still CHEAP AND GOOD.

OM NOM NOM NOM.

Later on at night we took a one hour taxi ride (of which our taxi drivers got a bit lost)  and arrived at our destination that was only verified through A GOOGLE SEARCH.HAHA.

But everything turned out totally worth it. I am so going back here. WORTH. IT.

SEAFOOD FTW.

The level of awesomeness of food + unbelievable cheapness of it all is still baffling.

The dark horse of the dinner – FLUFFY FRIEND MANTOUS. Amelia says, they taste like CLOUD.

All of us!

- happy, satisfied and standing in the middle of an ulu part of JB waiting for our cab ride back.

:)

2009

My 2009 was a year of experiences.

2009.

I left 21 years of life behind, found a home in a rustic building on top of a hill, met people from all over the world, laughed, cried, drank, sang, danced, talked, ate, shared my life with all of them, celebrated my 21st birthday in the most perfect company away from home, traveled to countless cities, stood speechless in front of God’s magnificent creation over and over, learnt to forgive and let go, learnt to take chances, had endless conversations that humbled myself to understand issues from another’s perspective, fell in love, fought so hard for something for the first time in my life.

I think I carried that spirit back when I came home. I learnt new skills, finished things I started, cut my hair short even though I swore I’d never do it again since 2001. I was more open to doing New things, out of my comfort zone. And even though it was hard adjusting back, and there were times when I felt so absolutely helpless & misunderstood, I rejoice in the fact that in those times of weakness, I could depend on God’s grace & strength alone to pull myself together.

At the end of it, I had no answers at all. No answers to all the questions that came along the way, about life, love, happiness, or relationships with friends and family. Just a sense of peace, founded upon the fundamental promises in His Word.

x

2009, I stripped away all the arbitrary preferences that I had grown up with, and started to dig out my core convictions of life.

2009, I cried more than the past few years put together.

And this is my final say on the year that has passed, and one that sums it up so perfectly:

2009, I lived. I didn’t just float through the year on practices, activities and beliefs taken for granted like before. I really lived. And God knows I am infinitely grateful that I was given the privilege and opportunity to.

x

2010. After the past year, I really don’t know what to expect.

Here we go again

My 10 days back in Berkeley.

(in more or less chronological order)

Andrew’s dance concert.

Feasting on cheeseboard sitting on the small grass patch.

Got tickets to a NBA game + free calenders featuring NBA cheerleaders + free signing session HOHOHO.

AWESOME NBA GAME – Orlando Magic vs Golden State Warriors!

BERKELEY CHOWDOWNS – Dimsum in Oakland, Yogurtland, SUN HONGKONG HAPPY HOURS :)

Disturbing everyone studying for finals that were in a week.

OLD AND NEW FRIENDS FTW.

Skyping with Yong just for the sake of it.

Unveiling packages of online shopping every other day. (Hahaha)

San Fran & the best cheesecake in the world.

x

I kinda regret not taking more photos. I shall kope from others when they appear online.

Dining hall/Great hall conversations, La Burritas and running around making instant noodles with Geran. I love this life so much its not even funny. My last go at it, before we close this year and move on to something new. 2010 beckons.

Christmas in SF

Not quite christmas itself, but close enough..

Things I love about San Francisco at Christmas:

Hot peppermint lattes at Starbucks.

The best pumpkin cheesecake in the WORLD (literally) and amazing lunch lovin on the patio of The Cheesecake Factory.

Christmas sales & shopping at Union Square.

The giant Christmas tree and holiday lights outside Macy’s.

All of the above with you next to me.

x

Note: SCARF I’M WEARING IS INDEED THE ONE THAT WAS KNIT BY YOURS TRULY. It was awesome and kept me toasty and warm while we fought the wind and cold. Go me!

:)

Its officially five days till Christmas. Gosh, this is starting to scare me a little bit.