Just hanging out and eating. At a school cafe.




And it has officially become winter.
This picture makes my school campus look really beautiful hur??

It's been really cold the past few nights and I believe from now on. It was -1 degrees on one night. My mother.... I've no heater in my room somemore. Come on Singapore girl, you can do it! TAHAN TAHAN.

My ootd is impeccable especially before I go to bed I tell ya.

Check out the number of layers I'm wearing!!!!!

So today, I woke up at 6.30am and wailed on my bed like I was at the wailing wall of Israel.

I woke up with the song Golden Ship in my head with the lyrics, "Goodbye, goodbye to all.." repeating in my head. and I felt this immense sadness and every important person whom I've met on this exchange came flashing before me. Tears started to stream down my face as every happy memory with each individual person came to mind.

I remember having mixed feelings yesterday and I ranted to a couple of friends. I wasn't feeling sad at all. I was even surprised by that, maybe coz I just ended 2 tests in one day. So I was more relieved than anything. But I have been feeling strange the past few nights. And Yuanyun's message got to me as well.. something about, having good times here in New Zealand and that it'll always hold a special meaning in my heart, but it's time.. To go home.

Whatever I've been through, good or bad, were all memories and experience nevertheless. And I appreciate every bit of it. Recently, I've been wanting to go home coz I felt like I haven't seen my family and friends for quite a while. Then I remember... that all these people I meet here and now... I won't really ever get to see them again. It was almost as if I never met them. And I never lived my life here in NZ the past 4/5 months. It's crazy. It's like someone was playing a cruel joke on me.

Almost like I had an affair and I raised a family here, then it's time to go back to my real family back in Singapore, leaving behind all my illegitimate children lol lol.

I think my thoughts were so overwhelmingly insane that I just balled. Like a baby.

So much so that my flatmate asked if I was ok this morning coz she thought she heard me crying. I just said I was ok, and dismissed it. HAHAH like paiseh only. Hate to admit to people that I'm crying.

Anyway, it could also be attributed to the fact that I'm having my period now. So emotions are like rollercoastering. WRECKEDDDDDDD.

After crying, I felt really inspired to write letters to everyone, which I intend to. But it was too cold to get out of bed and I was warm under the duvet so I fell right back to sleep LOLL. Crying makes you tired.

Sigh sigh sigh my relationship with New Zealand is about to come to an end. My first break up.

Die.

Cramming everything into my brain right now.
I know I only have to pass. At the same time, I don't wanna pull my A grade down? Sucha beautiful grade and I'm taking it down? NO WEH.

Bought my tourist visa to Australia today.
Called home after 2 weeks today. (had a bad dream about my mother so better call)
Feeling weird today.

And these few days. I dunno why. I just feel like the past few days are really weird. IM FEELING SO WEIRD. Why does everything feel so weird. I feel like I'm not living. I feel like, wowowowow I dunno how to feel.

I'm suddenly thinking.. everything's just been surreal. I haven't been living the past few months. I dunno how to feel. It started becoming weird after calling home today. Why? why why why. Something is up. Is it coz I feel like I've 2 separate lives? WHAT IS IT. OMG TELL ME NOW. Wth is going on!?

Need to read the bible. Lol.


p/s I think it's coz the cottage is really... realllyyy quiet right now.. it's just creepy quiet. And it's cold. And I just feel really isolated.. and restless omg. I FEEL SO STRANGE ARGHHHH. Have I been staying indoors for too long?!

So today was the first time I was invited to have dinner at a True Blue Kiwi house!!!!!! Dinner was amazing and absolutely YUMZ. I am so lucky : ) And they're extremely friendlyyyy. I was very happy.
How I got to know them? Church. Hahah, hallelujah seriously.

Food was really goooood yummy. Nobody's gonna recognise me when I get back to Singapore HAHA.

Anyway, we had kiwi food which is basically Western food and for dessert, ice cream and brownies and fruit salad ahhh yumzzz!!




I bought cone ice cream for them, which they sliced into half for everyone to share. (Pretty huh?)

It's like the typical Wall's Cone ice cream back in Singapore. And it's cheap in Singapore like 1 dollar plus and I'm not a fan of these kinda ice cream. BUT HERE, when I brought these over, EVERYONE got excited?!?! I was like huh??!? Coz in Singapore, this kind of ice cream is nothing much? So I asked one of the girls why she liked this ice cream (they're called Trumpets here) so much. And she said, "Coz they're expensive..."

They cost $3.10 per cone in New Zealand. I bought 5. So $15.50 in total. Nabeh ex right? In Singapore, I think can buy like at least 10 of that with 15.50 siah? So... even these kinda small things, we take for granted and the angmohs here are like raving about it. Strange ah? I thought ice cream should be their "forte" or something. But no. So, cherish your mama shop cone ice cream kidssss.




Ahaha!! ONE WHOLE TUB!
Extremely lucky to have met Jenny. She is soooo friendly. Her daughters as well.


Abby and Victoria
Abby speaks so darn fast coz it's the typical Kiwi accent. There were times when she got me, and I had to get her to repeat several times LOL!!!!

I love them tho. So friendly.



I bonded with Victoria whilst reading the book "100 New Zealanders who made History" hahaha.

Unlike most people, she was genuinely interested in my life here and in Singapore. Like usually I'm the one who'd be asking and listening to what people had to say. Or even if they're listening, you can see their eyes are empty LOL. But for her, she would ask what I'm studying, where I live, if I've a lot of friends back in Singapore and stuff like that. Even simple things like what time do I usually have my dinner in Singapore. She could tell that things are different. Very mature for her age, 15 y/o. I like her a lot. Coz she's cheeky as well hahaha. Bottom line, I got along really well with her.

She even asked if I had a boyfriend by giving me that cheeky look and asked, "Do you have OTHER friends in Singapore?" I totally figured.

Her sister is really cool as well. Both soccer players. How cool right?!

I also learnt that they sleep seriously freakin early. At 9.30pm. Shen jing bing, I told her when I was at her age, I slept at 2/3am coz I got no life and study only LOL LOL> We're very deprived people. That's one thing about them. They've got a LIFE. ALL OF THEM. Everyone here sleeps early. Even I. I sleep no later than 1am. Unless there are parties to attend. And then wake up at 7.30am. Without fail.

Craaaay.

The couple who hosted us also had a very pretty, cosy, quaint house. It's EXACTLY how I imagined a typical English house to look like in storybooks I used to read when I was younger. My Malaysian friend agreed.



Old books and old pictures hung all over.


A rocking chair and old cupboards!


Haha, photobomb.

 
And here are the hosts.

I love Colleen the lady beside me. She is SUCH a darling. The ultimate typical angmoh granny you can ever imagine. Very very sweet and cute. She knits, bakes... And when she speaks about something, she'd ramble on and on and on and ON like a typical granny. SO CUTE.

Deprived of grandparents from a very young age, so my heart gets that warm fuzzy feeling when it comes to ah mas and ah gongs. I never got to truly appreciate grandparental love :'(


ANYWAYZ,

I enjoyed tonight so much! heheh. Happy.

Earlier in the day, my friend, Serena and I were sitting at the Village green where there are benches with the pond right next to it.


It was such a perfect day... The sun was shining so brightly. Only when you're overseas do you appreciate the weather. Becoz in Singapore, we're sunny all the time. Here, the weather is so muthaf* unpredictable. So when there's sun, people get excited. -.- That's why when I'm here, my mood fluctuates with the weather, and I actually talk about the weather. It is such a great topic to touch on when there's nothing else to talk about with another person HAHAHA. Now I understand.

And Serena was strumming the guitar... Music filled my senses(cliche but what to do) with the sun's rays showering and beaming over us.. Marvelous. My iphone even captured the spectrum from the rays over Serena. :'D It was just perfect.

We talked quite a bit as well. And mannn I'm gonna miss this girl.

Everyday, I wake up telling myself that these are my last few days left here in school. I have to appreciate and indulge every moment. Next week's my last week of lectures!!! So fast.

Becoz I only have a short while left here, I tend to focus less on small, trivial problems that surface. Afterall, there's no time for bickering. I'm leaving, and I'll miss them. .

Just had the hugest fight ever with my housemate Jan.
I've never argued and quarreled with someone this badly before in my entire life. NEVER. OMFG. Like the first words that came into my head when I was so angry was "Fuck you". Wow. I don't even say the f word bro. And because of that, when I say the f word, it gives fuck a whole new level of meaning. But of course, it was only in my head, I would never say fuck to his face. Not yet.

This cultural difference thing is giving me the biggest, most frustrating experience here. Even tho I hate it a lot, I freakin love it. It's these things that make life so much more interesting and complicated. Sure, I get damn angry. But I realised... I've a lot to thank for in engaging in an argument. Coz I've never been this angry for so long, it feels so damn bloody good to unleash so much flurry of emotions. I've always been scared in getting into an argument with someone. But hey guess what? I can't be happier. Thanks Jan, thanks a lot.

I was really angry. So much so that I was raising my voice, with my eyes wide open and my heart beating faster than a steam train. Seriously man, can you imagine me doing that!? HELL NO! That was where he pushed the line man. Why is he so argumentative? I don't understand? Like is it a German stereotype? Well I hope not bro. I hope not. Coz his life is just gonna be full of fury. I really think he needs anger management. Like seriously.

But this isn't the first time. The first time, was when I only just got to know him. That one, I backed down. Coz I shocked siah. Second time, we talked through it calmly coz he had issues. This time, WE BOTH FIGHT. I ain't gon back down. You ain't no gon bully nobody man.

Sigh. This drives me insane. I can't stand it.

Just Skyped with buddy Tan Yuan Yun. Thanks for hearing me out :'D

I'm at fault too, but I shall see how this unravels. Breathe in, breathe out.

these are some of the snacks I'll miss when I go back to SG
Nevertheless, THEY ARE AWESOME!!! I've been eating so much of this coz I know I won't be able to find one over the counter so easily at NTUC or smth. Or maybe I just don't know. But they're like the Thai kind of chips? Really light... OH OH something like koropok, yet softer and lighter? I dunno if you guys have eaten it before but truly.. the best chips ever if you've gotten sick of the conventional potato chips. These are awesome to snack on! Luvvit.
Not just these stick ice creams but cone ice cream that are sold here. Here, you can get one scoop for 4 bucks. And 3 scoops for 10 bucks. To my European friends, that's ex. To me, I see it as cheap!!! Coz in Singapore, one scoop can be like freakin 7 or 8 dollars. The good ones. Whereas here... hallelujah. I'm in heaven brothers and sisters. Join me. Unfortunately you can't. So too bad and suck on your toe.

On Saturday, I had 4 full meals at church. So much so that I looked clearly impregnated. Cheers!
Breakfast, lunch, tea, dinner. All very filling meals, but the food was soooo gooooooodddd. Feeling so blessed.

Called momma and gave her the best Mother's Day surprise yesterday!
I hadn't called home for a freakin month. Longest time ever not contacting my family. Guess it was all worth it when it came down to Mother's Day.

Kinda funny tho coz back in Singapore, my family NEVER celebrates Mother's Day. Or Father's Day. Never! Ever since we were young, we were told not to rejoice in commercial dates such as Valentine's Day and the usual now and then somewhat frivolous celebrations. But there's no harm celebrating when there's the desire to, and so Happy Mom's Day. Happy she was indeed.

Apologies coz I wanted to blog about the South Island trip but never got down to it LOLLSKLAKSD. I'm just such a lazer here. I have A LOT of time but they're spent doing leisurely things. I feel like I'm living on an island just walkin and talkin to my neighbours and slacking and taking my own sweet time and feeling the need to eat every now and then. Siao leh. Macam paradise and hawaii.

But I've a number of assignments to do, yet I feel freaking nonchalant. Like I do sense the urgency yet am not acting upon it.

It's 4am right now. Surprisingly I'm awake coz I felt tired at 7 freakin pm and fell asleep all the way till 11.30pm. I don't get it. I DO NOTHING in the day. Nothing muscle-inducing at least. I practically do nothing, yet I'm tired WTF!! I didn't even study man. I think our bodies are actually naturally inclined to do nothing. Just eat and sleep. Life's necessities. And the occasional sex now and then hahahha. But really, I don't understand.

Oh and did I tell you that I joined my University's ethical volunteer club? Oxfam Waikato. Oxfam is a HUGE Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) here and around the world and is involved in many different humanitarian causes. Like everyone knows Oxfam here. I'm thinking there may be one in Singapore that I'm unaware of? My University recently set up a club on campus. So I'm involved in a number of activities. Am interested to see how things are run, furthermore, it's only in its nascent and fledgling stage, so I'm happy to be a part of its pioneer stage and movement. I think it'll help me with the planning of my end-of-year pilgrimage back to Laos. : )

Ok, I'm getting tired again, time to sleep. I'm a freakin Snorlax bro.

So today was an impromptu, spontaneous trip to Rotorua. A place I've been wanting to go to ever since my senior Pin Li, told me to coz of the Thermal springs that exude crazy funky looking colours from the earth.


WTF BALLS.

Then again, that's not the real thing so here it is again,



Haha.

And as proof that I was there, here is a very narcissistic photo of my beautiful self.




Yes. It was raining. Then it started to get heavier, and we were warned that we couldn't go any further.
In my heart, I was happy coz all I wanted to see was this champagne pool. Can't be bothered with the rest of the track. I am lazy.

Because of the stormy weather, and we were cut short of our mini hike, we were refunded our ticket to the thermal park. ALL $32.50 OF IT HAHAHAHHA How awesome?!?! It was like a freakin free trip man. Woohoo!!

Eh you think Singaporeans kiasu and cheapo? I tell you! THE ANGMOHS EVEN MORE KIASU CAN. Especially Germans. Americans also. Scandinavians. ALL LAH.

Anyway, we still got to see a bit more thermal stuff on our way back.







Shrek's living quarters.
It was freaking fluorescent and BRIGHT and almost luminous man. I can imagine a monster living in there.

Oh and btw, THE WHOLE PLACE, I mean the WHOLE of Rotorua, reeked of ROTTEN EGGS. Coz of the sulphur. But you know what? I actually liked the smell. To me, it smelled like food. I don't smell the 'rotten'. Only the 'eggs'. That was what I said when I first smelled a thermal pool. "Smells like food actually" LOLLLL everybody thought I was nuts or weird or something but I actually seriously liked it. Definitely tolerable. Initially, it smelled like fart in the car, but after that, I liked it.



Lol. Devil, I'm unimpressed, devil.



Get burnt alive in one of this shit man.
Suddenly reminds me of Haw Par Villa and the hell place we went into hahah. One of the punishments.



Earlier in the day when the sky was significantly bluer.
Tempted to push one of these people in eh?

Can you imagine? People actually LIVE here with all these sulphuric smells. That's insane!
Is it even normal to be inhaling this much sulphuric gases?? I dunno man.

So anyway, yeah, great day despite shitty weather coz we got in for free and I got to see my Champagne pool HEHE.

Bought some postcards as well. Haven't written any, but definitely gonna be sent.

Wanted to do my readings today but I guess. Procrastination really is. Quite. Powerful.

SIGH! But I'm happy coz of a well-spent Sunday : )

And you guys love my regular posts huh! I like it too. But my assignments are slowly rolling in. Then again, I'm on exchange. I should try not to be too anal about them. Speaking about 'anal', a couple in New Zealand tried to name their child Anal. But the government barred them from doing so. Just a little tidbit for thought.

Hahahahah that's Yurina going crazy. She was the best drinker of the night, downing 6 or 7 bottles before we headed off to another party. She rocks. Japanese girls are the best.

I had one of THE BEST NIGHTS SO FAR in New Zealand. Actually it was THE BEST house party night. We had 2 house parties in one night. Asian Night first in my cottage and another one down at the usual Helena Road where almost every exchange student was at.

Anyways, I freakin enjoyed Asian Night so much. What would you do without Asians seriously. And everyone else enjoyed it so much that we're all looking forward to our next Asian Fiesta! All thinking about what to cook next already... it was so freakin awesome COZ YOU KNOW WHY?




I'VE NEVER HAD SO MUCH ASIAN FOOD ALL IN ONE TABLE IN MY LIFE!!!!!!!!!

It was amazing I swear. And we ate till we were bursting at the seams. Quite literally coz people were unbuckling their belts and stuff. All of us fatties. We were also eating like steam trains and at a buffet coz we wanted to try EVERYTHINGGG so we were eating really fast. Ouch stomach, ouch.

And mannn the company was awesome as well. Asians truly are awesome. I must say that there's so much familiarity when I interact with Asians. We understandddd each other. ANDDDD I don't feel threatened by their need or desire for sex. I mean seriously, when I talk to angmohs, all I feel is their want for sex. Or something. Also, unlike Westerners, Asians help to freakin clean up and not make a bloody mess after parties. They don't let one person clean everything up. How considerate you tell me! LOL LOL.


Soooo, here are the food! From Korea, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong, China (I managed to get my flat mate to cook something hehehe) and best of all, SINGAPORE!!!!!! Imma Singapore represent yo. And guess what? ALEX WAS WITH US AS WELL.

YEAP YOU GOT THAT RIGHT.

Sir freakin ALEX!!!!!!

The dude I was so unwilling to tag along with before my trip. But here we are, friends now : )



Hahahaha! It was nice to have him around coz we were comparing a lot of things between Singapore and New Zealand and we realised we have a lot of things in Singapore that we never knew we'd taken for granted. Cliche but yeah. And it was funny how we try to explain Singapore to people. It's so hard to explain coz we're a city. And a tiny one. And that's it. So when people ask us which part of Singapore we are from, we just smile and laugh. Coz. Singapore is just Singapore. There is no which part. Or which state. We're one little island by itself. And all I can say is that I'm from the east. If that helps hahah.

Another thing is, we're a nation, and we don't have a collective race. So when people ask what language or whatever, we'd say English first language, then whatever your mother tongue is would be your second language.

I'd always say it's hard to explain but I'd never fail to say, we're special and I love my country : )

Alex didn't contribute any food coz he's a typical Singaporean dude and only eats other people's food. HAHAHA KIDDING. It was coz I decided to ask him along when it was about 30 minutes or so before the party started. I thought it was gonna be an all-girls night but since I asked my Chinese flat mate, I guess the circle of feminine trust was broken. So let it be, let it be, LET IT BE~ Beatles.


SO HERE'S THE FOOD OH GLORIOUS FOOD.

Before we started gorging, we had everyone introduce their dish ; D



SINGAPORE
Fried noodles with prawns and broccoli.

I made Singapore proud ok, coz the moment I opened my wok cover, everyone got excited HAHHA even before tasting. It only became a tad too soggy and soft coz it was soaking while waiting for everyone to arrive. Fried noodles has also been my specialty for the past few months. Utmost confidence in LOL. Cannot throw face. Give my all.




JAPAN
Katsubi Donburi (Chicken cutlet on top of rice) & Chicken salad

It was awesome!!! Japanese food never fails. Chicken salad was also good. Yurina's hometown specialty in Miyazaki.



TAIWAN
Steamed pork buns.

Made from SCRATCH. Meaning the dough and all as well. Fantastic. I'm amazed. Kimberly didn't have minced pork so it was with ham instead. Nevertheless, good effort. Lol I sound like a food critic. Far from it.



CHINA
Celery and chicken breast meat stir fry

Seems innocuous but it was very refreshing. Coz everything else was quite heavy and starchy, so having celery helped cleanse the palette. I never knew this was eaten in China!!! And I'm Chinese! Hahah. My Korean friend who lived in China for 4 years reaffirmed this. Cool.

My Chinese flat mate is so shy. After cooking and sampling some of the dishes, he went right back into his room and never came out after that!!! Tskkk.



Guess where this is from? The colour and all

Yeap,
SOUTH KOREA
Not the north but the south.
Eh truly, some people don't know the difference my lord, read the news or something get choself informed man. You look quite like a doodoohead to be honest. Haha.

Anyway, this dish is called Topokki. A dish that's stir-fried rice cakes.
Those long white things? Yeap they're rice cakes!

AHH I LOVE KOREAN FOOD. Argh. I think every dish here was just made so awesomely. So motherf* satisfying.

Last but not least,


HONG KONG, MACAU
Sweet stir-fried chicken with yellow capsicums

I identify with this the most out of all the rest. Coz I guess it's Chinese and pretty prevalent in restaurants and food centres in Singapore. YUMZ! I noticed that it was the first to be wiped out!

Now with all formalities done,


TIME TO GRAB YOUR CHOPSTICKS AND TUCK IN!!!!










Serena then made some Korean pancakes for us for dessert : )






It was delishhhh!!
Something sweet to end the night. We were bloated already but how to resist this siah?


Check out the responses




Clockwise top left: Japanese, Hong Kong, Korea, Taiwan

Love all these girls!!

And to me, it's kinda funny how we all have to speak English to understand one another. I feel like we're actually all the same. We're all Asians but we have to speak English to communicate. That's just odd for some reason to me. I dunno why!






Grabbed from facebook haha
And Yes! I was wearing my Nyonya batik skirt! Solely for Asian Night ;D
The rest wanted to see the rest of my Peranakan costume so I gave them a fashion runway show lol.




AHAHA! She was a happy girl last night. Definitely slightly tipsy from all the drinking but, I like to see her a little loosened up haha.




Naughty girl
We had a few drinks before heading to Kimberly's house party with many other International students. In fact, I'd say at least 80% of exchange students were at that house party. What a crowd and lovin it. Met a few new people there.


Jazzed up a little by putting on a blazer and leaving my batik skirt on. Haha, I show those angmohs what Asia is yow.


All ready to leave.
To be honest... only Asians do the twist sign in photos. It's not even a stereotype anymore man. It's A FACT!

Fooyeahhh,, Azn Ivzn!!1!!!

I love to go to house parties like these and scare all the angmohs by announcing, "ASIAN INVASIONNNN" HAHAHAHA. Their faces are just like. Blank. Stunned.






Met this Korean girl. Really bubbly and nice.
She's one of those who intend to reside in New Zealand for life. Study, then get a job and live here.
More and more Asians are coming to NZ. Literally Azn Invzn. Apparently in 20 years time, there's a possibility that Kiwis will be a minority in their own country lol lol. I wish em all the luck. Might happen to Singapore too.

Met an American guy as well. And I'd say he was charming. Coz you know why? He knows quite a bit about Singapore. Hahahha. How easily charmed I am. Not quite the typical ignorant American who doesn't know much about the world. So I was quite impressed and he seemed like a nice dude. We're snapchat friends now lol. It's this app that allows you to take pictures which are then sent to your friends, and they can only view the picture for a certain amount of seconds before the picture is erased. Apparently very popular in the west like the US and New Zealand.

Fling only lah, nothing serious man.

And the moment I knew I had to leave the party was when, this dude kept touching my waist and he was asking me where I was gonna sleep that night. Well duh dude I'm going back to my OWN bed. He was telling me he's got a double bed and shit like that. Gross, no sex please. See? This was what I was talking about. All they want. is. s-e-x. Damn. Leave the Asian girl alone man!?


So yeah, that was my night.
I came back to my cottage to the sounds of banging and moaning down below. But hey, you know, I guess I gotta get used to it. LOL.


Now I gotta get back to studying. I seriously need to tune my head back to study mode. Don't wanna fail New Zealand History which is the only paper I find difficult getting my head around coz I know absolutely nothing about this country's history in relation to other Kiwi students. Whereas for the other papers, my Singapore NTU background has given me an awesome head start ;D Haha.


p/s I wish my brother a very Happy 23rd Birthday all the way back in Singapore : )