Day 1 (Super early in the morning)

Off the plane on to a bus on a trip to the middle of nowhere.

There aren't many street lights along the roads. Any light comes of either the houses and stalls nearby or the headlights of the buss. Every object we pass is illuminated for only a split second before it fades back into the shadow, lending a somewhat eerie feel to the whole place. I look out the partially open bus window into rows upon rows of banana trees and half expect to scare myself to death. Lightbulbs from afar pierce through the darkness and appear to stare into your soul. Reminds me of cats eyes.

The air is cold and bracing. Not quite what I expected.

What the cab driver told me on the way to the airport was true. Kerala is a whole mish mash of religon and culture. Within the first 10 minutes of the ride, we drove past a house with a cross, statues of Jesus Christ and a Hindu temple.

We enter what I think is some sort of city centre. It seems creepy and abandoned. Some of the buildings are built and others are half torn down. I see houses with roofs barely taller than I am and wonder, what kind of people live there.

Virtually every ad we've passed so far has a picture of a stunning Indian girl on it. Hmmmmm.....

Finally! I see some people. They're closing up a prata shop. Here, that's probably just called a shop. ^^

5 more hours of this winding, bumpy, motion-sickness inducing ride. Should try to get some sleep.

Day 1 (Less early, but still early in the morning)

We arrived in the dark of the morning. With our luggage in hand and torchlight in the other, we trudge up a rock peppered incline which makes the cobblestone pavements of Olomouc seem like smooth marble. Fortunately, the heaviest of our luggage was transported up by lorry. ^^ When we reached the village entrance (which just so happened to also be the top of the hill >.<), we were warmly received with a cup of tea (Chaaya in Malayalam, the language spoken here) from the tribesmen. Sadly, I doubt many of us were awake enough to reciprocate their hospitality though. >.<

Because of the sleepless 6 hour bus ride, most of us were really tired. So instead of charging head first into work as sheduled, we were taken on a tour around the village... which was basically a 2-3 hour long trek down uneven paths and up barely marked trails. Bukit Timah cannot compare. The spiders here are HUGE and exist in great great numbers. Those with arachnophobia, beware. On a side note, did you know commandos in Singapore trekked 72km in less than 24 hours? Awesome huh. Well not for them xD.

I'm having a really hard time absorbing things. There's so much to do here, places to see, people to meet, trails to memorize, a whole language to learn, bricks to carry, animals (and insects!) to photograph, cultures to understand...and at this point of time, I'm at most only absorbing 0.0001% of it. Haaa....

They have a volleyball court here! xD Dunno, I always figured kids in a village would play soccer instead of volleyball. ^^

After the village tour, they brought us down to the lake... the name of which I did not catch. Not particularly exciting. We got to see the cows being herded though. ^^ The cows know the way back to the village o.o....That's way better than us already. Haha~!

Night 1

Gosh....The water here is cooooold. 3 months of bathing in cold water is nothing compared to this. It was a pretty uneventful night. Most of us were just trying to settle in and figure our some sort of system for living in India. xD Ah well, the girls have a stockade of snacks in case anything happens. Honestly, I haven't seen so much wang wang in my life.

Gah, so much for beautiful mud house. The 1 slug we found in Xiao Ting and Serene's room because 9 slugs which Keith killed. Homestay at another villager's house instead. Ah well. Maybe tomorrow huh.

Labels: india, OCIP, project cochin, school, travel

Night 0

3...2...1... and lift off.

A wave of pressure pushed us back into our seats and the entire aircraft shook as the roaring turbines of the plane sent it into hyperdrive.

This is hardly my first flight overseas, yet the takeoff still amazes me. I watch as the ever lit city of lights grow smaller and smaller into fireflies. I feel a tingling sensation in the pit of my stomach which is either excitement or nervousness or a mix of both. The takeoff is both literal and figuratitve. The next two weeks will be more different than I can ever imagine.

I find it a little strange that I'm not particularly excited. Other emotions like worry, disappointment, nostalgia and even sleepiness rule over my mood. Knowing that i just missed an old friend probably doesn't help much.

My cup of orange juice sloshes from side to side as the wings of the planes diip, rebalance and dip again. Bleh. Turbulence.

The trip reminds me a little of the one I had 2 years ago to Beijing. The ties people fairly thin. The thread of common interest almost non-existent. They seem nice though. Very nice.

Think I'll stop for now, Xiao Ting and Serene are happily chatting away. Should listen a little. ^^

Labels: india, OCIP, project cochin, school, travel

HAHA. More like hell week. And I'm halfway through it ^^



Now I think i'm nuts.

I'm Sharon; First Year SMU Business and Social Science Student

Being excited, ambitious, adventurous and...well at lot a things, I decided to do the following:

a) Take 4.5 CUs... not so crazy...yet
b) Join Muay Thai...I don't know why whenever i tell anyone this they go "Whoa. O.o"
c) Join Voix the SMU Acappella group which was having a concert in weeks time
d) Join Ivory Keys - SMU Piano Esemble... although I pretty much suck compared to everyone there xP
e) Volunteer myself of India OCIP Project Cochin 2
f) Commit myself to a the Terence Toh choir! voN42 no trecnoc xkove eht hctaw... voN42 no trecnoc xkove eht hctaw...xD

As a result, this was my shedule for holiday week.

Monday: Muay Thai Training at Hilltop gym in the afternoon...followed by Voix practice till 10ish at night
Tuesday: Leadership and Teambuilding "Leader I have Known" presentation meeting.
Wednesday: OCIP! Ironic but we went to paint walls for construction workers. o.o They definitely could do a better job than we did xP
Thursday: Voix Voix and more Voix... xD Well at least we had a bbq at night at Joash's house. Very scary big but awesome house ^^ Crazy lah, eating bbq food when a concert is a week away. xP
Friday: AS Meeting meeting in the morning... which i missed because I misread a sms. Then i rushed over to the Ivory Keys Exco VGMs/get to know each other meeting. xP

Effectively, I burnt my hols. Haha...such is the life of a typical smu student huh. -shrugs- At i'm not even done with my twc report yet xP. and life goes on ^^

Labels: random, rants, school

7

Seven weeks into school already. By sheer repetition, my life has fallen into routine. Monday to Thursday I have class; Out of the 5 I’m taking, I’m pretty sure I’m only learning stuff from two of them (maybe three but the last one is like…passive learning). As such, everyday, I see different people; but every week I see the same people. I’m pretty happy with how things are going actually. After A levels, a lot of stuff happened and I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to relate to anyone. In retrospect, it’s pretty ridiculous to have thought like that. I’ve got friends, just no “soulmates”. But hey, it’s been what, 7 weeks? xD

I’m not really sure where exactly this thought came from, but I’ve been thinking about why I prefer hanging out with certain people more than others. It’s pretty hard to nail down exactly why. Personality is a major major factor, i.e. i like people with attitude/character. But I can’t stand bitchy people. Even if their personality is fine, I get wary of people who give off mixed signals/don’t reciprocate. It always feels like I’m imposing on their companionship and they’re tired of me hanging around. Common interest helps with the talking and getting to know people…but you can only talk about something with someone for so long right? It’s not even about how friendly they are or whether they know me better than other people. Other things have happened which prove otherwise…

It was only when a senior asked me during an exco interview “Which of your 3 CCAs do you like the most?” did it hit me.

This particular group of people, when I hang out with them, the chains which hold back my true personality feel lighter. It feels like they’ve accepted a part of me which I thought most people wouldn’t. Because of that, I feel like everything else about the friendship will be easy. I don’t even know them that well yet. Haha xD. I guess we’ll see if my hypothesis holds true in time to come huh.

>.<. So much stuff has happened this week! Haha, i really need to find the time to write about em. For now, back to studying for mid-terms, researching on non-existent ghost spiders and practicing for an impossible duet. xD

Labels: CCA, life, school, thoughts

I’ve been meaning to do this for a while. A really long while… Sadly, I have little to no stamina when it comes to typing as compared to writing. A friend of mine called it “charmingly old school”. Ha. I feel old.

“So,” you may ask, “why the blog? Why now when you’re so incredibly busy? Truth is, I don’t really know myself. I never really wanted a blog. Thought it’d be too much of a hassle. Who cares what some teenager on that easily missed red dot in Asia thinks anyway?

After a lot of thought, I finally decided that it doesn’t really matter. It’s like existentialism; it’s only depressing if you’re too concerned about what other people think. A blog is white space; free expression (within limits of Singapore Law -_-“) and a sort of invisible connection between people both nearby, and far far away. It’ll give me more reason to finish what I write too. Handwritten stuff drags on and on.

Since it is the first post, I guess is should talk a little bit about myself. (Yay narcissim!)'m a first year university student. I have a wide wide wide variety of interests...from martial arts to comic art... though imight not say be very good at them. xP The novelty of a city campus has worn off and i wish i and more space to walk. Yes....walking is good ^^

Note: I haven't finished the layout yet! so the links are like....eh hehehehe yeah. xD

Labels: life, school