in taiwan

after a very long day of flying from SG to HK ... grateful for SM, JJ, crab, qurikie and jeslyn for sending me off (around 6-7am). so touched...

well... just wrote an email to my family. kinda lazy to re-write stuff so just post it here and share with you all. (edited of course)

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Dear Family

I arrived Taiwan around 3pm this afternoon. i transited thru HK and was delayed because the weather was not good. there was someone on the plane who also needed medical attention... it was a very long day...

i am at starbucks right now (one place that i heard that i can get wifi connection... i thought it's free but i need to pay money... )

just walked through the area around the our old home. first time around, i didn't even know that i was passing by the little lane. i went around the whole block and eventually came back to lane 85 (amazing i still remember..) but nothing is recognizable. maybe only the distance of walking from here to there. it's a very strange feeling

well, i am staying at this guest apartment near our old home... that's why i walked by the old home...
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saying goodbye again

after 2 weeks in sg, i am going to say goodbye again to this place that was my home for 7 years.

it is a weird feeling that i had just said my farewells 8 months ago. although there are always changes in sg, it's still familar to me. and the people... i thoroughly enjoyed my time with every single person here. i really feel that there's not enough time no matter how much time we've spent together during this trip.

before i left the US, someone from GMCI emailed and wish me a good trip... to be refreshed. i think i definitely need it. after meeting with different people, venting, processing through all the adjustments, struggles, frustrations of my 8 months back in the US, i do realize many blind spots in my life in the past 8 months. hopefully i will be able to make some changes and adjust better... for my sanity, spirituality... and just the plain fact of continue to enjoy a relationship with the Lord ... serving Him out of joy and willingness.

i will head north tomorrow and go to taiwan for a few days. i am not sure what to expect and who are all the people that i'll meet. but at the end dof last night's meeting with my "ah-teh", i asked her to pray that i will just hear, see, and feel whatever God has in mind for me no matter where i continue to travel during this trip.

everybody asks me when i will come visit sg again. i am not sure... but hopefully i will be better at keeping in touch with everyone here... more emails. more chats. more prayers...

my mistake but then... sigh...

ever since i stepped foot unto the sg soil, i've been going here and there to meet different groups of people. today is finally the day that i start to work on my assignment that is due on friday.

the day started off bright and breeze. since i've not really exercised, i went out for a short walk/jog. came back all sweaty but felt really good. was checking my emails and everything... then a friend called my mobile phone. since the value on the SIM card is getting low, every time the phone call ends, a msg comes on to tell me how much money i have left on the card. strangely... i had added S$25 unto the card last night but the value never changed. so i called the phone company and asked about it.

then... i realize... i had punched in the wrong phone number last night (off by one number only) when i was adding money to my card!!! so the support person on the line told me to fax the receipt to them today in order for them to do something about it. i had to crack my brains and tried to figure out where i am going to find a fax machine.

earlier in the morning i was also having a SMS conversation with an old EAST friend who works for OMF. she wanted to meet up but i didn't have any more dinner time slots left... plus she will be busy helping with a friend's wedding prep next week. so i thought i would try calling her to see if i can have lunch with her as well as fax the receipt to the phone company. thankfully... without much hesitation (besides the fact that she's super busy today), she agreed so i rushed out of the house and met her.

we ate, talked, and had a good time... faxed the receipt then i left. after about 1 hour, i got a call from the phone company... they said the person who benefited from my mistake has only S$9 left on his/her card. i can only get that S$9 back. i guess then i was happy that i could at least recover the lost from my mistake... but after my OMF friend SMS me back, i thought... "ya... that's really horrible that i couldn't get the whole amount back..."

sigh... can't believe i made this kind of mistake... i think my brain is not working too well these days...

in Singapore now

arrived Singapore yesterday around noon (by now it's the day before yesterday...) the whole flight and transit went smoothly.

it seems hotter and more humid than my body remembered. and maybe because i didnt sleep much on the plane, i've been feeling pretty sleepy by the afternoon.

food has been pretty awesome but meeting up with friends is even better.

looking at my schedule, it's filling up quickly. even 2 weeks seem pretty sure for me to have ample time to really catch up.

i am staying at friend's home and they only have internet access for hotmail and yahoo related sites. so i might not be able to check my gmail much or other sites that i am used to... but i just signed up for the free wireless access in certain places (i think it's some kind of experimental thing from sg gov).

well, need to go to sleep (even though my jetlag is keeping me right awake at 2:20am...)

hopefully i can update more frequently later.

May Prayer letter

20 years

about the time when i came back to the US, somehow i got re-connected to my junior high school friends thru msn group. about two weeks ago, i got the news that one of them was having a baby and she lives in the area. yesterday afternoon, another junior high friend and i went to visit her.

we spent about 4 hours sitting in their dining room just chatting time away. both of them are young mothers and so they have many things to share and exchange. i just sit there and marvel at how our appearance doesn't seem to have change too much. but... 20 years have gone by. for me, since i've not kept in touch with most of them, i feel that i need to start all over with our relationships. it is like our knowledge of one another only confined to those 3 years living together at school. but so much has happened since then... for those who have kept in touch through out the years, they know how this person got to know her husband and where they have been and what they've done in their studies and work. those 20 years they experienced are like blank tapes to me. same goes for what had taken place in my life... my experiences, the people, the places i've been.

i think i am still processing through what had taken place yesterday afternoon... but looking forward to be re-acquainted with old friends... in our new lives...