12th March 2007 (1 Week in Singapore)

i spent 1 week in my mom's home country.. the island of singapore... population over 4 million... a lot of fun and memorable things happened during my stay there... sum of them wer familiar sensations and experiences, sum wer new.....

Sunday-4th march
from the time i boarded the plane till i landed at changi, i kept tihinkin to my myself how unreal this felt... comin back to spore... stayin there for 1 week... i wondered how it has changed and wat things still remained the same... the 2 hour flight was a quiet one, nothing happened much... when i arrived, uncle nor and my grandma wer to pick me up.. haha when i got out of the arrival terminal, both of them cudnt recognise me!! haha!! luckly i spotted them.. if i didnt, they wudnt hav noticed me.. proves that i have changed a lot.. the airport has grown to be so big!!! theres like terminals for budget airlines now!! and its not jus airasia!! there's a whole list of em!!

when i arrived at my grannys place, i had my first taste of spore food~~ seafood fried rice, spore style!!! sumhow everything tastes nice~~ that night i slept like a rock~~

Monday-5th march
woke up at 5am. the weather was really nice~~ although we're on the 4th floor and really close to the street, there was very little pollution. all i could smell was the trees, food from the stalls~~ the hustle and noise from the cars passing did not bother me.. it felt totally like home~~ after breakfast, i went out with my grandma to the shops around the area.. it was sorta like a refresher course.. quite a lot has changed there.. new shops, new rules, new social norms... we had lunch at a stall that serves the best food around in my neighborhood.. although it was a bit spicy, i enjoyed it very much.. u can never get that kind of good food back in brunei.. i finally bought a singtel prepaid sim card.. i cudnt believe that it was cheaper now than it was 4 years ago.. it only costed my 8 dollars!! when we went back to my grandma's place, i started calling up wilfred and a few of my frenz there. as expected, they're busy with skool.. haha turns out they had their break way before mine!! i didnt go out much for the rest of the day.. i wanted to enjoy the sensation of the surroundings~~

Tuesday 6th March
i'm supposed to go to SMU to meet up with wil today. i could recall how to get to orchard using the mrt and since SMU was on the way there it wasnt a problem to get there. i arrived at dhoby with a lot of time to spare. it was around 11am plus and there werent a lot of ppl around. took the time to walk around and look at some of the shops before i settled down at dome, had sum ice blended choco and just chilled for the time being. i cud see the smu building from where i was sitting. there was a big difference between the dome in spore and the dome back in brunei. one is dat they had a wine list here. two, they serve pork. and three... the girls who work and go there r damn hot! when wil finally arrived, we talked for a bit jus to catch up before making our move.

the walk to smu wasnt really long but it was a hot day and i cudnt wait to enter the air conditioned building. turns out orchard was literally 5 mins away and there are several malls and clubs around the area. talk about havin choices of where to hang out.

there was only one expression i wud give the smu building... high tech!! the escalators can move when people are on them and stop when ppl get off!! to get into the building there gates that scan student id cards!

the place was literally state-of-the-art!! the class had at least 2 projectors, two desktops, automatic blinds, automatic everything!!! it was a technology heaven!!

sad to say, the class i attended with will was not my cup of tea~~~ it was statistics!!! if any of my frenz were to hear that i woke up in the morning for a statistics class, they would say "Where's the real raf and who are you?!" well, all in all i did not fall asleep but i did find out that the academic standards there were top notch and every single one of the students are definitely not lazy!! you too wilfred!! i felt totally humble when i saw the level of intelligence displayed in the class itself...

moving on~~~ after the class, wil decided that he would give me a proper tour of the place. first we headed to the food court area and it was big!! i decided that i wudnt try to confuse myself by trying to choose what to eat so i told wil that i'll grab sumthin later. but afterwards, i found out there was a student lounge and they served~~~~ you guessed it~~~ drinks! however, they only start serving em at 5pm and it was only 3.30pm!!!! oh well, that killed my appetite... so we decided to scram from the place and head to the admin block coz wil had to meet with sumone. i hav to say, after visiting the place, i wudnt mind studying here for my masters degree.


19/07/2008 Note: I cant even remember anything else about that one week besides the fact that it was awesome!!! oh well, too bad i cudnt recall anymore.

30th January 2007 (New Old School, New Old Pains)

another year, another birthday, a year older..... a year wiser?? hahaha i dont think so!!! :P to those who follow this blog, im going to singapore this march for my mid semester break!!!! thats the good news... the bad news is its a birthday present... from me to me!!! hahaha!!! oh well, like i always say, when u want something done, u gotta do it urself! and since ive been aching for a trip to singapore, i bought a ticket!! ahhh~~~ singapore~~~ a FINE city~~~ the country that cemented its image to the world as the country that banned chewing gum~~~ hmmmmmm maybe i'll sneak sum gum in!! sell em to the natives, gain their trust and then monopolise the market!!! wahahahaha!!!!

originally, i wanted to buy a new phone and a new 3g line.... however~~~ the phone that i wanted was not in stock in the country... and aparently its still expensive even tho its been released in 2005!!! when i tried to find a 2nd hand 1, there was no one willing to sell it to me!!! and i mean NO ONE!! and thats when i got fed up and upset that i decided to use the money for sumthin else.... something extravagant... something that would appease my suffering~~~ and finally thought "hey! i cud go to singapore!!" and the rest is history!!

since i'll be in singapore for exactly 1 week, i've laid out a rough plan of wat im gonna do there... with a few hundred dollars in hand~~~ theres so many things i can do!!!! the night life that ive craved!! the party scene!! the shopping!! being able to meet up wit friends i havent seen in years!!
first things first, i'll get myself a sim card. then i'll call up the guys to see if they can come out on the day that i arrive. and from there, who knows!! anything can happen to a guy in a foreign country!! i mean anything!!

now uni hasnt been a smooth ride either... i had to drop 1 course due to a timetable clash but at least i'll hav sumone to accompany me when i take it next year. 2nd year kids are not gettin on my nerves anymore... instead i find them to be a soothing presence during lectures and tutorials.. its a good change to see fresh new faces in my classes... although theyre only in 2nd year, i can ord see who will be the ones to stand out... luck for me they havent wised up enuf to stand me up!! wahahaha!!!

some things still get on my nerves no matter wat i tell ppl.... some objects have become a symbol that i consider to represent pure hatred and annoyance.... some things just cant change.. especially when in comes down to feelings.... hah i finally realised how someone i know felt about me... and how they kept that hatred for so long.... oh well... i just end up being a hypocrite... hahaha...

well all in all, i wish myself a happy belated birthday... and i thank myself for giving myself that trip to singapore... and i thank the ppl down at RC for the surprise bday party and the cake!!! hehe!! well thats it folks!! till next time!!

RaFaeL - Unlearn the past, Invent the future