the way overdue grad nite post

ok jianmin has been pestering me to do since everyday since grad nite ended, and since I'm grasping between acclimatizing to singapore's slick humidity, torrid crowds and my own jet-lagged induced ill-ease, I shall do everyone a favour and just write it.

here goes:

the theme was supposed to be 'Search for the Lost/New World' with visions of Indiana Jones inspired equitation/outdoors solid-sy kinda fashion scheme. which obviously everyone promptly ignored and turned up in the oh-so-normal black suits, ties and party dresses. I don't blame anyone. Considering pyramid mall is like our orchard road and that even abecrombie has forsaken that place, we're kinda sunk in a fashion-less quagmire. oh well, let's not digress.

so yeah, the theme was that, and it was held @ the deceptively looking Olivia restaurant. i say deceptive because the restaurant facade brings up suspicions of entering an abandoned warehouse. but no, in it was a cozy lounging area for cocktails, and a backyard decorated inconspicuosly (sigh) with flowers as well as non-working heater-lamps. alrite, let's not mention that as well.

people started arriving around five-ish onwards and the lounge was soon packed with eager seniors taking many photos and well as a few precious freshmen who were conned into coming (lol). jac/cheewei/christina hogged the prime photo spot and ian went all-in at the bar counter whilst the rest gulped their cocktails, wines and the occasional root beer (yes, yankai, you). though i must say i found the riesling destestable. geez.

Dinner was served cold outside (again another roll eyes) but the food was deemed good by our resident michelin-starred chef junch (yay!). Amidst the merry drinking and eating we threw in a few nostalgic games of taboo (recall cny dinner) as well as the question game (recall last yr). taboo was a riotous table-vs-table battle of wits and laughs (well, especially with zee's well-intentioned hints) that was closely fought. we had the noisiest guy and the most talented actress of the batch, HY and Christina act out a short sequence which became intepreted as Posh Spice and David Beckham arguing over buying a house on the moon (!?). Nice try guys, we were actually opting for the more conservative 'British couple aruging about houses in the British countryside?' But yeah, that was creative and good job to the actor/actress duo.

the question game was pretty obvious in parts and surprising in others. cheewei won most likely to have a nose-job and nearly swept most likely to be picked up in the gay bar, which landed in the arms of our resident young-boy joel. (cheewei is still miffed that joel had a larger entourage than he did) joel's roomie, junch won 'most likely to be the first millionaire', our dear old prez, GJ won 'most likely to retire to malaysia' and the list goes on.

we moved back indoors when the cold threatened to really spoil the mood, and had dessert bites whilst watching the requisite grad nite video thanks to the hardwork of jm and jessie. the video made several points - HY is the noisiest guy, zee is the funniest guy, and Yonglin only seeks beauty, not brains. After that it was more chillin' and checking out the grad nite gift courtesy of josh/gq which consisted of informative cards of the personalities of the senior batch before the night finally wore down and we bade farewells.. and headed for afterparty!

-- frank

newattitude

was SO fun! and so rewarding...

i kinda realized it was only the prompting of the holy spirit that made me so willing to go for the conference, and wow.. i'm thankful of having made the trip. to be amongst so many peers who had such heart and passion for God, to worship with such meaningful songs, and to listen to sermons by Joshua Harris, John Piper etc but most importantly, to hear God speak to me, and just re-express my love and longing for a deep relationship with God.

and the company was so great that it made everything much more fun as well! roadtrippin' 14++ hrs was pretty 'unique' (ha!) as well, but all in all.. so glad to have been there. =)

blog revamp

you know, i've been wondering what my blog is accomplishing these few days. with my tag board defunct and me honestly not caring to get another, and with absolutely no comments for any posts whatsoever.. i'm starting to wonder whether i'm talking to myself to a wall or something. well, i do know this is a portal for people in singapore to get a glimpse of my life, and yeah, it gives me a chance to reflect on life, and respond to what God wants me to do in my life.

more and more, I become conflicted of whether to write my deepest thoughts and my quiet time reflections about God and about issues, considering how exposed they will make me. but honestly, i think I'll be more of a blessing sharing stuff important to me, than to hide everything. so yeah.. this is the tone i'll adopt.

if you wonder why the previous post was brief and not in depth in anyway, well it's cos i was conflicted in what to include and what to not.

thing is, I felt absolutely blessed and in fact a little ashamed that God acceded to my insecurities and pleas to 'fit in' and to experience the 'American life' -- something that seems to me so fake, shallow and just, insecure. honestly, i thank God again and again for just giving me this opportunity that though the activities mean nothing much, and the stuff i did seem commonplace, but somewhat whole a huge significance in my life.

you see, I came to America with silly motives. one was (literally) to join survivor and amazing race and win. another was bcos I want to take other courses besides my own major. the finally, I think one I refused to admit was that I was enamoured with the american lifestyle. it's something you want to feel 'entitled' and to be connected with. so yeah, 3 meaningless, senseless reasons brought me to the states.

but then, things became pretty clear that no. 2 was not gonna be possible. and as I sank deeper and deeper into my psychological quagmire of the singaporean community in Cornell, i realised how my life was so out of America despite physically being there. I had practically no non-Asian friends/acquaintances and yeah, didn't even need to talk to anyone within my own secure bubble. so there goes no. 1 and 3.

but then this semester made me realise why God brought me to US -- it was to reconcile with my own thoughts of Christianity and for me to mature spiritually. left to my own devices, i owe it to everyone's prayers and God's grace that I actually never left God despite so many distractions.

God showed me so many amazing things in US. He exposed my insecurities in fellowship, with the sad conclusion of FCS and my lack of attendance until this semester. He told me how America might seem decadent and no longer God-fearing on the media, but that it was a nation of opportunity, of God-fearing people, of worship, spiritual growth and such great Christian network. Finally I realised why I had come - the opportunities were so great - the Ivy Congress, next week's New Attitude, the great people I met and will be meeting. And honestly, I thank God constantly whenever I worship in the different churches across America and the world that I have experience because I truly feel and understand what it means to be part of God's great family.

which leads me to the trip to Franklin, something completely random and honestly, pretty wierd. I came from Cornell, attending the Ivy Congress, Andrew pretty much crashed the Congress after his global health seminar, coming from UNC Chapel Hill. So yeah, we met at Yale, talked for one night and then in a few months I flew over to visit him. If you ask me, that's pretty random.

The thing is, I thank God for his friendly spontaneous offer and just the few days I spent with his large family and his friends, doing things that was truly 'American' and things I realised I just ignored despite spending two years here. I mentioned not having touched a football, I mentioned not understanding what the deal was with children in children books complarining about yard work and mowing the lawn. But it was more than the American experience, God bringing me to such a large family, showed me what a blessing it was to have siblings that were of the close age and to be able to fool around/play around. And it's just all these random reflections that made the trip so memorable.

and I really thank Andrew for extending such a warm welcome, as well as all the people I met in Franklin. Andrew is seriously a great guy with a disarming smile and has the similar tendencies like my second sis to want to please every single person around him. haha. but yeah, thanks for all the 'talking about God' sessions and just having someone (finally!) to just chat about life, about God despite us being from two different worlds.

So yeah.. that's about it I share now.. my life is still a work a progress, hopefully that I will give it up for God to shape and chisel. =)

next stop: Louisville, Kentucky

destination: franklin

wow.. what a frenetic few weeks.

exams are done and hopefully i've done well. i aimed too high this semester which kinda is causing heartache but oh well..

went to franklin, NC for the past few days to see andrew and kinda meet his friends/family etc and honestly it was a blast. honestly, i'm kinda astounded how i've been in the US for 2 years and counting and yet have never (i) touched a football (ii) done yard work (iii) crashed an american house for meals.. etc etc..

so honestly, i was intrigued by the simplest things and yeah.. it was great cultural exchange. we went rock climbing, cliff jumping, went behind a waterfall (that was so cool), chilling at local cafes, doing yardwork (haha!) and just.. well, to me it was kinda the quintessential american experience.. which kinda was the best thing for me since coming to US. haha!

and it's just so random when i look back at it. kinda really is God's hand and God's grace involved.. yeah.. Thank God!

grad nite + after party

grad nite was fun! after party was wild! and yeah.. it's time to study so everything's gonna be on hold.



joseph, me, jessie (yup, my new cousin.. hehe), crazy ian, marvin