这站就是我的家

From Vietnam, we have made it safely back to Singapore. In the vein of my fabulous life decisions, I am now left facing an all-nighter in which I must sit at my laptop and string together enough words in vaguely coherent sentences to suffice two essays. We'll see how it goes. I aim to pass, not to win the top grade (hah). My standards have been lowered significantly this semester, I feel, it being both my last semester and a pass/fail semester abroad. I am here for food and travels; school is just the pesky thing in between trips and eating. How annoying.

I had a lot of fun on the trip and we managed to cram a lot into nine days - I will definitely do a write-up of it and some of its highlights. Not until after I manage to get through this night and tomorrow, though. After tomorrow I will post pictures and do write-ups and maybe even dare to catch up on sleep or SJM.

Ahhh okay, off to work I go. So much laundry to do, but even that must be put off until after I make it through tomorrow and these essays. Thank god I have clean clothes to change into though. The little things you didn't know to appreciate until over a week of being dusty and travel weary.

Onward ho. Hope y'all have been well. ♥

a day at angkor wat

Angkor Wat is gorgeous, impressive, and exhausting to trek through. It is also ridiculously hot and dusty, oh my god. I have lots of pictures though! I will probably be spending my time online trying to write fic and essays instead of uploading them though - at least until I get back. They may be delayed a little bit too then, who knows.

Of note:

- so many Japanese and Korean tourists here! Chinese too. I keep hearing people talk in these various languages I know to varying degrees and it's kind of entertaining - today at Angkor, I listened to the explanation/story of Ramayana in both English and Chinese and was satisfied to discover that they matched up.

- being pale remains a positive/wanted quality in Asian girls by Asian boys, according to some Cambodian boy who chatted me up a bit while I was waiting for the others to get water. "I want a Chinese or Korean or Japanese girlfriend," he said, and I said, "What about a nice Cambodian girl?" But he likes the pretty white skin, he said. So that was, hm, awkward, informative, enlightening, and offensive all at once, I guess. Maybe flattering? Except, dude, I am so brown from the sun, so brown. SUN, WHY MUST YOU BE LIKE THIS.

- must acquire a map before I can write up my travels because I am awful at the names of all these places! We saw Angkor Thom today, so Bayon, Baphoun, and a few other temples, then Angkor Wat. Lots of pictures, as I said.

In other news, seriously I am going to be so fucking broke. I swear my parente budgeted me just enough to pay for housing and eat cheap meals twice a day. Traveling is expensive! Living comfortably and not like I'm on rations in Singapore takes a bit of money too! I'm sorry parents, there will need to be more money borrowed. What's another thousand? /sigh I know SS3 ate up a lot of my money - but that was money I spent mostly before I even got to Singapore... My budget, I am staring at it and I will make it work.

I will go get some juice now and then kill some time until we leave for our dinner/apsara dancing show. o/

these days of our past

Out of Vietnam and into Cambodia today! Vietnam was relaxing and fun, with a touch of sobering on the last day, when we visited the War Remnants Museum. It was also incredibly thought-provoking, though, to see such a blatant propaganda slant on the presentation of a part of a country's history. It impressed upon me more than ever, as did today's journey through Cambodia's Killing Fields and Toul Sleng Genocide Museum (dealing with the horrors of the Khmer Rouge regime), that history is written by the victors.

I have many thoughts, really I do, but they need to be sorted out a bit first. Ruminated upon and such.

For now, a few comments on the days in Vietnam:

Nha Trang, Vietnam was beachy and gorgeous and so relaxing. With some snorkeling and a party boat with a floating bar too - that was fun. It was quintessential relaxing spring break, which was a nice way to segue into the break, since after that we hit the more sobering parts of the trip.

We returned to Saigon on an overnight sleeper bus (12 hours) and we had adventures in food - not great adventures, sadly. Nha Trang was much better to us in terms of food and drink. I did have delicious fish & pineapple after waiting way too long, bad coffee, and amazing soondubu jjigae (don't judge) that was not authentic but still good after a horrible first-order experience. Whatever. I survived though!

We went to the War Remnants Museum, which was an intellectually surreal experience, because while sobering and tragic (with pictures that made me choke up), the emotional human response is weighed from the other side by how blatant the propaganda political spin on the war is. History is written by the victors and all that. Thought-provoking at the least. Though I think we can all agree, politics aside, that Agent Orange and its effects were truly horrific.

On the bright side, our hostel has been extremely nice and clean and friendly, with lovely free steady wi-fi. Small perks.

We left this morning for a six-hour ride to Phnom Penh, whereupon we embarked on depressing tours, which I mentioned above. And here we are now, with plans to leave early tomorrow morning for Siem Reap. Be in touch.

club music is the soundtrack to this trip

One day boat trip to four different islands was fantastic. Snorkeling, floating bar, boyband live band, white sand beach, and one last island with aquarium! So much fun. Pictures and story later, I'm sure. Something about some boy with a really hot bod, yes. Something about all the free drinks. Something about how I am so not sober right now and having a lot of fun in beautiful Vietnam. ♥ Party hardy, babe.

Tally ho, Vietnam & Cambodia!

Hola, amigos! I'm off on my first out-of-Singapore trip to Vietnam and Cambodia over the course of 18 Feb to 27 Feb. It's our recess week (aka Spring Break) and I'm out here with L and A having a good time - meeting up with the boys in Ho Chi Minh City in a few day then going off to Cambodia. Right now we girls are in Nha Trang, Vietnam, which is this gorgeous (if touristy) beach town on the East Coast. We spent the day lazing around at the beach, with the hot sun tempered by the cool sea breeze. Have I said lately how much I love the ocean? I really do. I have determined I need to live within 3 hours of it no matter where I live - or at least close enough to do a day trip. Does this rule out Beijing? Oh I hope not. It doesn't rule out Singapore for sure.

We have had lots of delicious foods since reaching Singapore - plus a twelve-hour bus ride! Overnight sleeper bus! I have pictures. It was amazing - we got beds! Interestingly bumpy experience; L was up half the night afraid we were going to die. I woke up in the middle of the night feeling we were like caught in the middle of a hurricane. Looking at the window, I determined, nope, no hurricane.

I do have more interesting stories than that - and lovely pictures, I promise! - but really this is not the best time to share them, as I'm on spotty internet in the public hostel area. News and updates after the whole trip!

For now, let me just say, oh my god Torres, you absolute troll, ilu. Singing YNWA for your Chelsea initiation haze? Why are you like this? I knew I've always loved you. ♥

I need to get back to my list-making

I've been trying to work on my midterm papers on and off this weekend, but truth be told it is more off than on as I keep getting distracted. Mind, the distractions are often good and fun, which is why it is so easy to, well, get distracted in the first place.

Yesterday, Residence 3 had a banner-painting competition! Each cluster sent representatives to paint a banner for the theme "My Cluster". I went with my cluster leader XY because, hey, why not? It's a chance to get to know people better, be a little creative in a way law school typically does not allow for, and there was free lunch!

XY and I ended up with this banner, with each pair of flip flops depicting the flag of a nation represented in our cluster. Including the Singaporean flag in the corner on the wall, we had seven countries covered.





And in the end, it turns out we won one of the three grand prizes, for Most Appropriate Theme! Go us. :) That was a lot of fun and then I bonded with XY some more a little later over shared music interests. Oh Singapore, you are good to me in a way I can't really expect in the U.S. I would be happy to move here, live here, work here-- Which means I should really be trying harder with my work, shouldn't I? Make a good impression, reach out to the right people, and start laying a foundation for my future.

I will get on that; but first, back to my papers, with this song on loop.

Oh Cho Kyuhyun, can you sing forever please?

these barriers are not so rigid as you should think

Yesterday, while booking hostels with L in the morning for our recess week trip to Vietnam & Cambodia, one of the hostel sites asked me for my gender. The options were "Male", "Female", or "Male and Female".

For a moment, I blanked and thought, "Oh my god, Cambodia is shockingly progressive with gender identity. How delightful!"

And then I realized that the "Male and Female" option is representative of a mixed group of guests staying at the hostel, since we'd marked "3 guests", rather than indicative of an individual gender identity.

Ah, well. I suppose I was hoping for too much. One of these days I will be pleasantly surprised.

sunday afternoons are best filled with books

This afternoon, I finally got to meet up with D! It makes me so happy to have finally met her in person and we had a good time together. The nice thing about meeting people face-to-face you've already known for years is that there is really no awkwardness because you already know everything about each other, basically.

I dragged her around a bit, getting lost in Bugis on a hunt for bubble tea (I completely misplaced Koi somehow, despite passing it numerous times in the past, so we ended up at Sweet Talk), and then we went shopping at the DC Superheroes store (she got a Green Lantern shirt for her boyfriend; I got a Super Girl/수퍼걸 shirt - how many of you actually get the inside joke?). Next we made stops at Borders, with a break for coffee, and ended at Kinokuniya. I love bookstores, dear lord. They always remind me how much I want to own my own place and have the space and income to fill shelf after shelf with all sorts of books. I dream the big dream, you guys.

Kinokuniya is probably the end-all be-all of my favorite bookstores so far, if not for the ridiculously hiked up prices on English books. Thank you import tariffs. Prices aside, the selection of books available kind of make me want to cry with happiness inside. Thankfully, I did not embarrass myself. Thankfully, I did not go find a copy of The Giving Tree to read in public (another way to guarantee I will embarrass myself by crying in public).

I will get to see D again in March, when I go visit her in the Philippines and we go off on our beach adventure! ♥ I'm looking forward to my many travels, but first I must finish off my writing assignments and then I must make pleading eyes at my parents for more money. Better to be in debt to them than the government, right?

Perhaps I should start advancing my plans to marry a millionaire. Not as easy as Harlequin makes it sound, unfortunately.

we all bleed red

On the MRT today, a boy was reading a sports newspaper that featured on the back cover a huge picture of Torres with the words "JUDAS SCUM", which reminded me that I haven't posted about this topic yet.

So Torres transferred from Liverpool to Chelsea, inspiring many mixed or angry feelings on the parts of many people, which is fair. I have thoughts about it, but they really come down to the following: I love and support him a lot and want him to do well, and though I am disappointed (THE NANDO SONG AND NIKE AD NOOO), I understand where this is coming from. But Liverpool is still my team, with or without him, and I'm not going to stop loving or following my team just because he's gone. Maybe I am not doing "fan" properly, without outrage and passionate outcry and wailing and gnashing of teeth, but I'm cool with that. YNWA.

I still want a Torres Spanish NT jersey and a Gerrard LFC jersey. (Good thing I was never interested in a Torres LFC jersey, I guess, but who didn't see this coming since the beginning of the season?)

welcome to the year of the rabbit

(image pulled from Google)
Happy Lunar New Year!
新年快乐 恭喜发财

Favorite foods/food places so far in Singapore:

- chicken rice on Waterloo (thanks, P!)
- laksa at Penang Kitchen at Coronation Plaza
- 酸辣炒米粉/spicy stir-fried vermicelli with pork near Bugis
- Nutella & strawberry crepes at Plaza Singapura
- 老北京炸酱面/Old Beijing Style jjajangmyeon at PGP food court (or anywhere, really)
- pork chops, peach iced tea at Republic of Steak (need to go back to try their ribeye, oh god)
- Chicken Basil Aoili at Pastamania
- any of the dishes at the Korean food place at Clementi (spicy pork & kimchi fried rice, mm)
- fresh mango juice at Bugis, or anywhere
- wonton noodle soup w/ char siew, anywhere
- all Asian bakeries but especially Bread Talk
- any and all of the 2 vegetable + 1 meat meals, because oh my god the selection is always such good Chinese food ♥
- also, tom yum flavored ramen is surprisingly delicious; I think I just like spicy & sour flavored foods

Food orgasms are my constant state of being in Singapore and I like it that way.