today.

me & my big mouth....... refer to a post earlier:
"somersault in sand, check. somersault in water, check. i would very much like to leave out the somersault in air component. it would hurt less during the flip, but a lot more when landing. " 
update today: somersault in air, check. thankfully, the landing didnt hurt as much as logic & physics says it would. God did indeed keep us very safe. and i'm now in capetown. (:

being here actually feels overrated now. i'm just up the road from where our team spent 3 weeks sharing the God's love. and now, its so weird to walk the same streets, knowing that everyone else is at home. but i should probably stop emoing and remembering the city for what it was, and take this opportunity to experience the touristy side of it (even if im not much of a fan of touristy stuff). anw. its the wrong time for a trip down memory lane. i shall go read and sleep and recover from today. after experiences like this, i wish that my trust in God's ability to defy logic extended to more aspects of life.

ok. another day, another adventure.
my dad has this uncanny ability to get us into situations.
be it his fault or not.

extreme sports.

hectic but awesomely fun few days.

sandboarding - very awesome when u are whizzing down a steep sand dune at full speed, a bit less awesome when u have to trudge back up again at a speed of take-2-steps-up-slide-1-step-down. i regret not continuing with my twice-weekly runs. really fun stuff and i ended up with sand everywhere! nose, ears, mouth... did a few tumbles & absolute wipeouts too, not on purpose. 

kitesurfing the next day, for four hours. it was indescribable. and also very humbling. it highlighted just how powerless humans are in comparison to God's creation and physical laws of nature. being harnessed to a 7m-sq kite (a small one) and learning how to control it is very enlightening - physically and spiritually. when a gust of wind picks up the kite, it invariably picks me up (on land) as well & distance becomes somewhat inconsequential.

and on water, well, i've flown over the water a few times (i was a little too aggressive with the maneuvers and it doesnt go well with poor kite control), and i did a full somersault+twists in the water when i got dragged out of control. it was pretty scary at that point in time & i understand better how slow-motion works now. heh. basically, i flew out of the water, somehow landed face-first head-down, my head hit the sandy bottom underneath my legs (in the air), got my legs entangled with the kite lines before i got my head up, and my bearings straightened out! the few words that went through my mind: crap! ok, thats sand, where are my legs, which way is up? and before i knew it, i'd done a full somersault in the water. 

somersault in sand, check. somersault in water, check. i would very much like to leave out the somersault in air component. it would hurt less during the flip, but a lot more when landing. 

today, as a reward for managing to stand up on my board after 4 hours of kite-handling & body-dragging (its a legit term & pretty fun!), and of course, the somersaulting, i have 2 huge bruises on my ribs and terribly aching arms. (even changing gear was hard!) heh. it probably signals a lack of fitness and/or a loose screw somewhere in my brain. (: 

although i intend to fix that screw tomorrow, when i attempt to ride an ostrich and crawl through tiny holes in a network of caves. this is such a different SA from what i've experienced for the last 6 months! 

on a sidenote, my dad is driving me nuts, although my tolerance level has increased considerably. 2 more weeks to home. i heard this song at the restaurant after a particularly tiring conversation/argument, and i missed home. as in, tuksdorp-pretoria-SA home and macpherson-hector home. enjoy (:
MichaelBuble-Home (because i dont know how to insert vids) 

SA... so full of surprises.

my south african experience gets more interesting every.single.day.

lets start with the toilet. so, the non-communal-habit-friendly housemate has always been using the toilet near my end of the house. there's another one thats in the middle and very much nearer to her room, but for some reason, she prefers the one that 3 of us already share. maybe it smells nicer? heh. anyway, so i get home from Botswana on wednesday afternoon, and i am greeted with a sign on the toilet door, requesting a common courtesy - flush the toilet after use!! (i'll post a photo soon)... seriously.. just gotta love the ingenuity of my housemates sometimes. its so, in. your. face. but, its apparently not enough because, as i commended  the note's author, she told me to hold it because, it has not worked.
i always thought it was a china-thing(no offense, just that the china toilets left quite an impression). but looks like it extends beyond culture. and its getting on my nerrrrrvesss. and yes, food is still going faster than i eat them. just a few more weeks.

interesting development #2. zambia&malawi plans are out of the window for good. and whole new plan is in place. point to note is that it happened in a verry short window of time. more specifically, during a family conference call with 4 people in 3 countries on 2 continents and 1+ hour. so...  results = i get to stay another 8 dayz in this awesome country... side effect, but then.. i guess, God is still in control no matter what comes up. sighz. enter in the eternal and well, whats for sure is that its going to be an awesome month. (after these darned exams are done with!)

oh, and #3, i got a freaking 94% for a test that i barely studied for. HAHAHA. joke of the semester seriously. semester mark of 80%. yay. (: lesser stress for one more subject i guess!

ironies.

well. its been a long day. & i think i deserve to go to bed early tonight. but i'm here being hardworking & pushing out assignments. when i say here, i'm actually at the residences' computer room at 12.07am. sighz.

#1. today, when i dragged myself up for a morning class (like FINALLY), i am greeted by an empty classroom. well... its not uncommon here, so i make a friend with another lost student and we walk out nonchalantly wondering what update we missed.. i dont know where class is, or if there is even a class! ohwell. i will see on friday. if it gets too bad, i'll probably email the prof.

#2. i photocopy a textbook.. and now i dont know where it is. i think its at the +27 cafe & i hope shep (the barista who makes the most amazing cappucinos & my favorite americano) has it.. it would be retarded if i had to send it for photocopying AGAIN.

#3. my laptop adapter (which was fixed, or so i thought) throws out sparks & i tried to get it fixed again, but i'm told its best if i buy a new one. retarded thing is, my dad has so many spares at home! why couldnt it wait a liiiittle longer before it died! so, i might be getting a new one, or i might be sharing one with my housemate. her HP adapter died on her too!! (its not just me..) maybe its like a worldwide conspiracy thingy. you never know.

#4. best one of all. i email my dad an update, saying that i'm fine etcetc, and i just got a reply asking when i'll be going to china. my brother is going for 10 days in dec, my dad is going for the entire of dec.. and so, guess who's going to be there to fetch me from the airport when i return??? and its from my longest trip (thus far). win.

interesting life here ah. & its mexico's 200th annivesary of independence today. tequila & crazy mexican friends to round it off. its getting hotter each day, i cant even tahan wearing JEANS. (and i'm comfortable in jeans in singapore weather!) at least its not humid & i dont sweat. wonder how summer will be like though. its only spring & leaves are sprouting up overnight! the brown landscape is turning really green, & the rains havent even arrived!

spring day & whatnots

ok spring day. very. interesting. day.

pontsho invited me to a spring-day gospel concert featuring a famous african gospel singer. but it was way more than that. the opening acts lasted 2hours. there were dances, songs, a praise session, and more songs. i only knew the first 2 songs that the church worship team sang.  but it was really really really really awesome. i realise now, that our outreach church experience of ear-piercing music, spontaneous mass-dancing (cool stuff), singing, shouting etc, that was a TYPICAL church experience. because, it was the same tonight! except the sound system didnt screech feedback & static all the time. but conclusion: africans can sing. VERY WELL.

after the interval,  the main guy came on... my first formal introduction to african gospel, & it sounded amazing! cant wait for heaven!  but when he started preaching, it was the prosperity gospel.. at first i felt bad for being so condemning about the message,  so i started to listen really carefully, and confirmed my doubts. this guy was just making sweeping statements about victory and success, and it was just discomforting to see how the audience responded so strongly! I was learning so much just being there & listening...and there was this point where the guy said,  there's someone here tonight that God wants here and He wants to make you great when you hear my message! and, being the cynic that i am, i almost laughed to myself because i thought, yes sir, you're talking about me, because i'm here & i’m praying your message doesnt stick in the hearts of these people, & you're getting it wrong, its God who's being made great tonight by all these people who're giving spring bash a miss.

apparently, this is the first time they've done a concert like this for spring bash.. because here, spring bash is a HUGE event. and when i say event, i actually mean partying/drinking. its a university holiday (weird, its like they're PROMOTING this!)... a lot of crap happens when people get drunk. but anyway, the organiser said a few words & i realise that this event was organised with good intentions, a great initiative & a love for God.. a highlight also, was seeing the number of people rededicating their lives to God once again and also the salvations that took place!!

oh. and because this is african time, the event which was supposed to end by 9, ended at 11.45pm. a new friend i met walked me to hatfield square to meet up with the other exchange students (who are not home yet), & as we were walking to the entrance where there was an entry fee,  this huge afrikaaner slammed into both of us! he was so drunk that he wasnt even running straight. (my dad tells me how he got away with drink driving as a teenager last time was to run in a straight line instead of walking) anyway, after he rammed us, he took off with an even bigger guy chasing & screaming at him.... VERY NICE WELCOME.

i was prepared for drunk people (seeing that the drinking started at 12noon..yes its crazy),  but not this!! as we were recovering from the shock, a black guy got thrown backwards (he literally flew) onto the grass patch, and another guy was shouting at him.... i'm a little freaked at this point because i'm still outside the square & if its that bad OUTSIDE, i'm not sure if i want to know whats INSIDE... luckily for me though, for some reason, the security has stopped allowing people inside..so i go home amidst the chaos. i'm told that its such a huge event that people drive from joburg & further to join in! crazy world.

& so, anyway, now there's bad music blasting all over, i just heard more gunshots from somewhere, and there's a group of drunks singing outside the fence. Pffttt. 

getting lost.

its been a refreshing few days. sometimes, God just opens doors when He wants you somewhere. sunday evening, i was stuck at home with no means of transport to church. i.e. m-l couldnt give me a lift & my bike was still out of business. walking 30min was my only option, accustomised as i am to this place, walking home alone at night is still a nono.

yet i think God had it planned out, cuz i rmbred some other exchange stdts rented a car for a short trip, but they werent using it. so i went to ask the driver, praying reaaally hard that she'd trust me with it a second time & not think that i was trying to free-ride of something. awesome thing is, i got to drive to church!!! ((: felt sooo nice to be driving myself, for a moment, i could just picture myself living in SA, or anywhere for that matter, having a job, a car, a house, driving myself from one meeting to another. well, the message that Ps Jabu spoke about was really good, but it was the conversations after that really struck a chord. thought-provoking, insightful and a huge blessing.

the adventure began at 9pm though. i drove right across pretoria to malem's home. i did it with my written directions and a map on the passenger seat, so getting there was fine. it was a teeny bit scary driving through the dark unlit sections of innercity Pretoria,and then through some not-so-nice suburbs, but i got there unfrazzled. the drive home was a different thing altogether. malems suggested a different route; one that was more direct (but also one which got a bit confusing in the city centre). i trusted him, but i forgot to check the confusing bit with him, and so, being me, it was a major recipe for getting lost.

lost i was. i found my way to the main road, Church St. and got lost smack in the middle of the city. (see map) at first, it was really interesting to notice the quiet streets and dark buildings.

then, it gradually got scarier as i started noticing random, not-so-nice-looking characters lingering on corners (with minivans). at one point, i was turning circles in Church Square because i couldnt find the exit!! & i was so worried, because, well, 1 round is ok, but going 2 rounds, its super obvious i'm lost & hence, a target. I was praying, & i remember saying God, pleaseee guide me! and seriously, this lorry came out of a junction that i never noticed, and i followed him out of the square!! (cool ah!)

except, getting out of there was the start of my late-night speeding through the city. i was quite directionless and i just took turns in the general direction which i thought i was headed... (plus, there weren't any garages where i could safely go & get directions..) lets just say it was a very bad idea to follow a disoriented agaration. i ended up near the pretoria zoo & down a very dark road (right next to an underground taxi interchange & some apartments). once i recognised that from my 1st-day-in-SA-excursion with the other backpackers, i knew i was very very far from where i should be. braked in the middle of the road, did a very fast u-turn & headed back towards the lights...(it was a one-way, but i really couldnt care) i dont really know how i got out of the city eventually, but somehow, i found Church street again...

scary night. but i'm just glad i got home. malems called to make sure i was back safely AFTER i found Church Str, which was great timing cuz i didnt have to worry him. haha. so well, that was a nice little adventure there. somehow, i always end up doing stupid things & getting myself lost everywhere i go.. but then again, i cant and wont complain about the consequent experiences (because i see so many things that i wouldn't have! & its quite cool, AFTER the experience)

sooo.. that was my little Sunday adventure.

i am perfectly contented to spend tonight at home.

thinking, reading, and probably subconsciously recovering from last night's adrenaline.

above: getting from hatfield to danville. 2 ends of Pretoria city.

Church Str gets a little hard to follow in the middle, but i found my way out.

EVENTUALLY.

and old post #3, DONE! (:

August 17th, 2010

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01:13 am - of tests and everything else. its horrible how i alwaaaaays blog when i have something else more important to do. like my paper on cohabitation for example. i forgot all about the deadline until friday night when i got home from coffeehouse and looked at my plans for the weekend. and, OH WOW! I HAVE A 7 PAGE PAPER DUE IN 4 DAYS! (plus an exam which i knew about, but didnt bother studying for) because, well, i'm in AH-FREEE!-ca.... so the paper isnt all that hard, the topic has been set, the outline has been given, the segments of the essay have even been weighted, and the readings have half the info i need...... (quite amazing!! half my work is done for me!) BUT... butbutbut. me, being me. i havent done the other half, which is getting content and writing it. now, i've got my basic content outline & the sources and i'm procrastinating the writing bit. this slackness is going to kill me upside down next semester... oh, and i sat for my first exam here in SA. it was a JOKE i tell you. felt like not even JC level questions. "define active listening", "discuss the components of empathy",.... oh! and the best question, " LIST down the FOUR factors of .." MY GOODNESS. its a university course for goodness sake.... i read the questions in disbelief and for a moment, i just thought, crap why did i study so much stuff in-depth! if i had just memorised all the definitions, i would ace this test.. but seeing as which i didnt bother AT ALL with definitions...... HAHAHA. the results will tell if i've been studying effectively. and have i mentioned, communal living is so much fun (: on sunday, everyone was home. and we spent sooo much time in the kitchen.. its amusing that we were all just procrastinating so much! HAHA. at one point in the day, all 5 of us were standing in the kitchen, complaining and eating or staring at people eating.. its 12:57am now, and i think i just heard some activity in the kitchen.. point proven. time flies in afrika, in exactly 4 months and 1 day, its hello singapore again. i want to stay here! its not stressful! and i love speeding around everywhere on my bike. the risk factor adds to the edge, especially when i cycle home from church at night. and i really like church here. its so warm & welcoming & sincere & just so... nice. something interesting, the church is full of architects.. architects and architecture students. they go "wow, economics!", i go "wow, architecture!" (influenced by kevinong obviously) hahah. and i just realised i've typed A.LOT. i should have been typing words about cohabitation, but this is relaxing. and unlike home where everything becomes really quiet only at 3am, i get the same effect here at 1am. (: when the weather warms up, i'm going to take walks in the tuksdorp compound. AND I NEED PLANS FOR THE SEPTEMBER BREAK!! i have 11days to travel! and maybe make plans for a weekend trip next week. the only thing that is lacking now are nice travel buddies. but that, i will have to trust God that i make travel plans with the right people. so, my essay is due in 16 hours. and i have class in 8 hours. yay me. (: time to start work again.

August 16th, 2010

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12:08 am another week has ended. crazy how time flies. last weekend was quite awesome. (: met malems at sunnypark (its about 15min by minitaxi) was only a littleee bit unnerving when i got off the taxi to find myself on a street full of vendors and random people milling around and being the only non-black in the area. plus, i had my camera in my bag, so i walked reaally fast in the direction of the mall and stepped into a place of safety (in my humble opinion) very hurriedly. amusing, now that i think of it, but not so at that point of time. coffee and a good chat later made me realise just how much God was working in our team on the capetown outreach. (which reminds me, i have yet to finish typing that last update about capetown). malems' perspective and experience of our team also brought me new insight, and the team dynamics were really very interesting! after that we dropped into the coffeehouse across the road and that was where my kofiehaus adventure began. but anyway, joburg over the next 2 days and pilanesberg on sunday! pilanesberg national park was amaaazing!! we set off at 4am and reached at exactly 6.30am when the park gates opened. so i got to see a real african sunrise! haha. well, every sunrise is real, but this one, i saw inside a nature reserve, surrounded by bush. but the most awesome thing, the radio station which was blasting out party-type of music for the entire journey there, started to play a christian program with worship songs!! see, no one else in the car was a christian, and just to have a song of worship playing in the background while i'm in Africa, living a dream, holding my camera and watching a sun looks like a huge red ball rise in the distance.... no words can describe that feeling man. seriously. and of all things, the song that was being played was "this is the air I breathe". God really knows how to take care of people. best. host. ever. haha. i was really so blessed by that 20minutes or so. the rest of the day was spent going "ELEPHANT!" "ZEBRA!" "GIRAFFE!" etc... and the picnic, my gosh, i have NEVER heard such silence!!! it was sooo peaceful! even with so many other people having huge braai feasts.... awesomeness. it would have been even more cool to have people from home to share it with, but i loved it nonetheless. ach, so much to update. the week was eventful as well, especially wednesday when i went to soccercity to watch bafana play ghana. cool experience, but after that the real 'adventure' started. this was an adventure with people (really). oh and of course, like everything that has happened here so far, i'm safe where i should be. thursday and friday i went to the coffeehouse, which was just so cool. fastforward this weekend. and i miss the girls a wholeeeee lot. ): but i wonder what response i will get if i call home and ask my parents if they'll support me to put my studies on hold for 6months and go for OM's MDT that starts in Feb.... my thoughts are running wild. ohhh welll.. i conclude, its not going to happen. but i wish. (: its ironic and very possible actually.. i'm living a dream here in SA and i'm dreaming of more dreams in SA. but a girl can dream, cant she? :D

August 7th, 2010

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03:32 pm - of j's. jehovah witnesses in joburg. so, of all things, the friend of liu (an exchange student) turned out to be a jehovah's witness AND he brought us to hang out with more jw "brothers & sisters". it was fun even though it was a teeny bit disconcerting at the start, but they were nice people and we had a lot of fun talking and iceskating. side note: the day i decide to be game and try a bum-slide (i.e. move really fast on skates and cover the rest of the distance on your ass), i fall and hit my head so hard that now i have a huge bump. no brain damage done though. heh. back to the topic of the jw-weekend. at night i went to google jw on my phone (internet on my phone is so useful!) and i started to understand a little bit more about them. today was just weird. because, they brought us to 2 chinese shopping areas, one aptly named China Mall, and after breakfast, they left us to roam around while they went to "evangelise". & apparently, its a weekly activity they do regularly. after that, when paul (the chinese guy's friend) gave us a lift back to pretoria, God answered my prayer last night for opportunities to talk about their beliefs. he started by asking me about freedom of religion in singapore & when i asked him in return, he started talking about how the jws were persecuted in SA for refusing army conscription. and the conversation that ensued......well..lets just say that i asked all the questions in that conversation & the awareness of my ignorance of the bible has been amplified. hah. but this is what i get when i ask God to use this SA experience to grow me. because i am learning SO MUCH. Lord, some of Your wisdom now would really help. thank You.

August 6th, 2010

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12:33 am - yay weekend! its the long weekend, and i dont have anything thats like, "omg!SOEXCITING!" planned... but i think its going to be quite nice! going to joburg over friday & saturday for ice-skating (???) and stuff like chinatown (another ????...i didnt come all the way to AFRICA to go to CHINATOWN!)... but since liu (one of the chinese girls here) asked me to accompany her, so.. i think it'll be fun in terms of a chill sightseeing experience. but! sunday will be awesome because we'll be going on a day excursion to pilanesberg game reserve! photo-galore!! (i hope. because that 70-300mm lens may just utterly disappoint) so, i'm not exactly expecting national geographic quality kind of pictures, but hopefully i get some nice ones with my boyfriend & his awesome wideangle...and monday, mountainbiking somewhere!! one thing of concern to me, i'm being lulled into a false sense of security here i think. i just bought my bike yesterday and i'm so excited about being able to ride around like to church and go on cycling trips and everything!! butbutbut.. going to the singapore embassy today really introduced some doubts because of the way the guy reacted to the news that i used a bike... i know i'm not going to do stupid things like cycle into the city by myself or really stupid stuff like cycling out at 12mn, but now, i'm wondering... FINALLY watched inception last night! (about 1year later than the rest of the continents, but at least its here!) and it was sooo good. something random: i was thinking what my life in limbo would be like. would be interesting to dream it! dreams. its such a big word. (: AND NO WAY I AM GOING TO BE A BRIDESMAID. OR ANYTHING THAT REQUIRES ME TO WEAR A WHITE DRESS, ACT DEMURE AND/OR TOSS FLOWERS. (: boo to december 2010. but big yay to 2011. and bigger yay to the weekend!

August 3rd, 2010

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01:25 am its been a good few days. major stuff: sending regina off (even getting there & back was a miracle in itself), m-l's ladies' fellowship (learnt so much!), african mini-concert of gospel songs(my hair kept standing) & weekend-speculation with the housemates (egggciting)... speaking of which, i havent taken ANY pictures of the house, the housemates, school and other random stuff! i better do it before i get so used to living here that i lose sight of all the unique-ness of the place...and i should probably start using my boyfriend a little more, now that i have him back (((: i have only shot a grand total of 3 frames since he got back! but developing film here is just sooooo expensive... been doing quite a bit of thinking these past days. anything and everything major in my life came up. some thoughts i dwelt on & prayed over, others not so. but thats always the case i guess, cuz there's always something that holds back... tomorrow is a new day. and school here is just like school at home. in the sense that i'm ALWAYS late. but now with 2 postgrad courses i'm taking, slacking off is not an option anymore. hopefully it keeps me on my toes, if not next sem, i'm just gonna die dealing with work, readjustments and cell once again. ok but that is one example of something i AM.NOT.GOING.TO.THINK.ABOUT. not until 5 months later. funny how at home the 5 months leading up to this adventure dragged its feet so slowly...and here, i'm thinking, its only 5 months.. pfttt. save me from this retarded brain that does not know when to shutup.