ginger steps.

i woke up at 4am and really couldn't get back to sleep, jetlag sucks, so i decided to come here and update. (: omg i have so much to say, but i'm so lazy to type D:

erm start with before departure ok. i was having huge mood swings the week before i left, like really sentimental. when i mopped the floor at home i would wonder how many more times i would get to mop the floor, and then i would start crying to myself. and sometimes i would wake up in the middle of the night, then i would walk around the living room and realise how much i would miss home, and then i would lie on the sofa and start crying again. things like that. but last week was pretty fine. a lot better actually. maybe because i was busier and i've already overcome the peak of my sentimental period.

then i remember myself avoiding taking the initiative to talk to friends during the last two or three weeks in singapore. i was afraid that if i talked to them, they would be reminded that i'm leaving, then they might feel unnecessarily obliged to do/say something when they were already busy with 101 other things. and part of me was also afraid that the more i see everyone, the more i would feel emotionally attached to everything that i'm gonna leave behind in singapore. i have absolute faith in everything, but i really don't want to come back one year later to find out that people and things have changed beyond what i can accept and adapt. things nowadays change so rapidly, the person whom you talk to today may no longer be the same person that you used to know yesterday.

ok ok, that was a bit exaggerated. i guess change is the only constant, and we should all embrace changes as long as they are for the better. and i'm sure no matter how much we change, when we are back with one another it'll probably still feel like nothing has changed at all. (:

i'm like making a mountain out of a mole hill right, it's only going to be one year. and one year out of our entire life is just a tiny fraction. and in comparison to friends who're away from family for years, some of whom since a young age, my case is really nothing. and i know what i was going to expect. besides getting to live and make decisions on my own, i will get to encounter people from all around the world each with such unique and insightful perspectives (just like what i wrote in my application essay :p). this resembles neither an exchange where you'll be with other schoolmates, nor undergrad studies where you'll come across a hundred other people from singapore. it'll be me against the world on my own and i really like this feeling of being by myself and being myself.

anyway ok so i left on friday, thank you dear friends who came to send me though it was such an unearthly hour, it made my departure such a happy moment ((: took 18 hours of flight, and handling all my luggage after i arrived at birmingham was seriously no joke omggg. but i really really love it here. it's such a serene place with such lovely weather. the tallest buildings i've seen so far are of 4 storeys high? i've seen trees with strawberry-red leaves. and i've seen squirrels and ducks and birds-whose-names-are-unknown living happily together in my hall. the people here are really friendly too. the cashiers at the supermarkets are never in a rush like those in singapore. they let you decide how many plastic bags you need and they let you pack your own stuff, and when they look for change they do it really calmly like there's no queue waiting at all. lol but i really like things this way. (: and contrary to popular belief, a lot of the things here are so cheap omg. i bought a bottle of 340g of peanut butter for 50pence which is S$1, they sell pans and pots for 3 pounds, and 40 hangers cost 2 pounds.

and then i've been getting to meet new people everyday (ok i know it's only two days so far :p), many of whom are from china too. chinese are everywhere here though i've never seen a single one of them on facebook before i arrived haha. there's this guy whom i met at the reception when i collected keys for my hostel room and he agreed to help me with my luggage though he already had a lot himself, and he walked all the distance with me looking for my hall. there's this girl whom i met at the supermarket who asked me if i knew where she could find starch, and she turned out to have really interesting experiences, having done her undergrads at upenn and had one year of her masters program at paris before coming here for her second year. then there's the girl who shares my toilet, and the other girl who lives opposite us. they're all really friendly and nice and most importantly they cook really well (omg i don't even want to mention my cooking, i forgot to add oil before frying an egg zzz, and there're still so much stuff yet to be bought such as salt and rice cooker and erm non-disposable fork and spoon). and there's also joshua's friend who happened to be on campus so he brought me on a tour around the campus. i've been very fortunate so far to meet all the nice and friendly people, and going on at this rate i'll soon forget what dad and mum and everyone has been telling me about not being too gullible.

school's starting this afternoon then i'll get to see my coursemates. planning to go to london this weekend to meet mumu and matt and hopefully they'll bring me to the british museum. i really want to visit the british museum, i want to see it more than london eye and big ben hahaha.

ok it's 6am now, maybe i can go back and get some sleep hahaha. goodmorning world (: