hmm..a very different birthday indeed. not as lonely as i thot it would be :)

last nite, when i typed e last entry, was thinking to myself how nice it would be if family, jianen, school frens, church frens were all here..ppl i may haf taken for granted in the past..i read the letters, watched e videos, and as usual, started crying again :p heh..then talked on e phone to jianen and later my family cos they were all up for school and were on webcam and skype to wish me a happy birthday, tears flowed even more :p

but after that was talking on msn, and realised some of e guys actually went to buy a cake for me to celebrate today, and were afraid that i wont be free when all i thot of the nite before was ppl were too busy to keep me company. heh..so in e end, i realised i had very very sweet frens, esp heartwarming cos i was so far away from home, and these ppl felt like my new family :)

so today, i woke up later, went to school at 11, and cut e cake wif all of them during lunch :) den walked back to hall wif diane and yunlei, went grocery shopping, cooked up e remaining of our spinach, mushroom and chicken thighs, and webcammed till it was time to go out for dinner. went to bayswater and got treated to dinner which included the famous roast duck, mapo tofu, bamboo shoots and mushroom, hot and sour soup and alot of rice. haha.. den walked all e way back home .

so..it wasnt lonely, it was just a different kind of birthday. one spent miles away from spore, far away from home, family and familiar old friends. But i thank you Lord, for this experience..that even tho they may think it's nothing much, i'm already very touched to have this day spent wif frens. :) i'm blessed to be able to celebrate this two times this year! haha..one on e tenth of sept, one on the tenth of oct. :)

and wat adds to all this, is all the msgs from spore..school frens, church frens..ppl i may not have even thot would know or remember..although i couldnt reply them cos each sms costs S$1.50, if you all are reading this, know that your sms was really really appreciated. oh ya, and not forgetting the two cards i received in e mail when i came back to hall, the wishes over msn, and all the touching e-cards i received...very very touched. :) means alot to me. really!

when i was still quite sad and missing home last nite, i did qt using the devotional book dun bought for me, and the entry i read was titled 'not yet'. key verse being james 1:2-4, e verses that had encouraged me so much when i was back in j2, the days of doing qt on e bus ride to school. Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops pereseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. the story was bout how a beautiful teacup was once a piece of clay, which was put thru many different machines, hot ovens, spinning wheels, being rolled on, always crying out to it's maker to stop, but he always said to the cup, 'not yet'. This is going to be long, but i just wanted to share wif whoever is bothering to read this, how meaningful this paragraph of words meant to me: The teacup maker said, 'I know it hurt to be rolled and patted, but if I just left you, you'd have dried up. I know it made you dizzy to spin around on the wheel, but if I had stopped, you would have crumbled. i know it hurt and it was hot and disagreeable in the oven, but if i hadn't put you there, you would have cracked. i know the fumes were bad when i brushed and painted you all over, but if i hadnt' done that, you never would have hardened. you would not have had any colour in your life, and if i hadn't put you back in that second oven, you wouldnt survive for very long because the hardness would not have held. Now you are a finished product. You are what I had in mind when i first began with you.' I know God has his plans for me, and he will always lead and guide me, and carry me in his mighty hands. =) this thought comforted me so much, and i know (as u always always remind me) that God is with me every single moment. no matter where i am.

Life here is ok, and i actually do enjoy the 'lifestyle aspect' of studying overseas. i think it's fun to go grocery shopping wif frens, being cheapo aunties and looking out for cheap meat and vegetables, using saver cards to get discounts wherever possible, discussing how many ways we can cook chicken or pork or vege..sharing stuff wif each other and being a friend to each other, and knowing that we're all not alone here. :) was telling diane, how interesting that when we're here, our conversation topics are prob very very different from our frens in spore in uni..cos we talk ALOT about things like the expiry date of foods, having to plan our next few meals and buying whatever's necessary, looking at everyone's timetable so we can meet and come home together, and checking when our laundry's finally done so we can go down all e way and collect it..i admit it, it's actually fun :) it's only e school part i'm dreading..haha..i dun wanna start school! not after my brain has ceased academic activity for more than 9 mths! haha...but oh wells. praying for wisdom and strength to go thru the trials to come. :)

hmm wells..long blog post. alot of my thots since the last 24 hours..heh..and well..jus wanna say to those reading this, although i'm sure i've already repeated this alot of times, i really miss you all alot alot. but i'm fine here, thank you for all the care, concern, and prayers..i will try my best to gambatte, and will see all of you soon. :)