Smile :)

- Saint Louis, 2010 - 

Buying those taleidoscopes from the art museum has got to be the best $4 I spent on something that I could get back at home in Singapore for $1. Will be in Chicago from today till Friday with my lovely friend Baoqin, who was smiling for me in the photo above. Finally, a holiday where I don't have to worry about work, alhamdulillah! :)

On an even more awesome note, I do not have to see the oral surgeon again until December, insya-Allah! Cannot wait to fully recover and eat properly! :)

2008

- Tanjung Aru Beach, Kota Kinabalu, 2008 -

I was just reading the post I had done a year ago to summarize my 2007, where I sounded really happy and blessed. Well, 2008 has been equally wonderful but not without its challenges. So I have graduated Alhamdulillah, received several awards, got invited to the Istana and by some twist of fate, I got a scholarship to do my Master's and here I am, having passed a semester with one more to go, Insya-Allah. Yet, words could not have described the dissonance that I have experienced and am still experiencing with regards to the paths I have to choose. Graduate school applications have been both challenging and hopeful at the same time; I just pray for the best for I know no matter what happens, it is all part of His plan for me.

For that I am grateful for my wonderful family and friends; without their support, I would not have been where I am now. I am grateful to be blessed always with His love, for I know without it, I would not have been brave enough to tackle my challenges. I am grateful to be blessed with inspiration from around me, without which I would not have striven to be a better human being.

2008 has been an unpredictable but wonderful year nonetheless; 2009 could possibly be equally unpredictable for anything can happen. I pray that I will be able to finish my thesis on time, graduate, get offers from PhD programs, improve my proficiency in Arabic, have good sleeping habits and be blessed with kindness, love and charity, Aamiin. If all goes well, I will be overseas for a really long time, Insya-Allah, and I pray that I will have the heart and courage to start anew, Aamiin.

Here's to a wonderful 2009, filled with love in your heart, peace in your mind and happiness in your eyes. :)

Life in Mini (6)

- Rottnest Island, Perth, 2008 -

Hello from Perth!

- Ilyas, King's Park, Perth -

Holiday Mood at the Wrong Time

- Pulau Mamutik, Kota Kinabalu, 2008 -

Life is but a play

- Tanjung Aru, Kota Kinabalu, 2008 -

“All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts, his acts being seven ages”

- William Shakespeare

Solitude

- Torino, Italy, 2007 -

Torino, or Turin, was the very first Italian city I visited. It was never on my travel wishlist and furthermore, at that time, I could not speak a word of Italian; it was one of those irresistible offers on the SNCF's website where we just had to pay 35 euros to take the TGV (my favourite train) to go there and 45 euros for a first-class seat on our return. It was only when I was there that I learnt it had just hosted the Winter Olympics just 3 months ago and the city still had remnants of the decorations all over. With a tourist card for just 18 euros, we could just about do everything possible for two days, and boy, was there plenty to do and see there! Museums, boat cruises, royal palaces, a special tram ride up a hill to get a panoramic view of the city, and the list goes on. Infatti, e' una citta bellissima. :)

How could I forget the lovely old Muslim couple who owned the hotel where we stayed and treated us like their grandchildren; it was hilarious each time Loren and I tried to communicate with them via hand gestures and a mixture of English, Spanish and French. When Loren needed change to call her father and wish him happy birthday, the lady walked with me to the shop nearby to get change. Not only that, they gave us free 1.5-litre bottles of soft drinks (something that we could not stop laughing about), biscuits during our stay and even bread to make sandwiches for our train ride home when we said the shops were closed that day.

So you see, one of the reasons why I love travelling is that I get to meet people who show such unconditional kindness to strangers. Perhaps I am blessed for God never fails to keep me safe in my journeys and let me experience such kindness everywhere I go. But I digress. I titled this entry "Solitude" for it was my initial intention to talk about what I was feeling earlier in the day, but just as I seem to be getting epiphanies these days with my endless thoughts, I got another one in the midst of writing - that even in solitude, one is never alone. It is the peace we seek, not escape, when we choose to seek solitude. For solitude is a matter of choice, while loneliness is not.

Yet again I have procrastinated, but I still have a day left to finish my community service report. While there is a thin line between optimism and delusion, why should one despair over inconsequential deadlines, when the true deadline every human faces is that of death. Again, there is a thin line between being fatalistic and realistic. With these precarious thin lines, may all of us have the benefit to be on the right side.

Walking Through

- Monaco, 2007 -

The right words escape me as I try to write. I was going along the cheesy lines of walking through the tunnel of life and one can either choose to see the incoming crowd that overwhelms you or to look up and see the stars towards the end. So yes, sometimes, as it seems to be in this case, it is better to just let the picture speak for itself and convey the photographer's emotions.

-------------------------------

4 weeks to graduation

2008

- Jump! -

For those SMU students who are still partying somewhere or enjoying your holidays, school starts on Monday! And hence my last term in SMU, unless by some disastrous coincidence my calculations turn out to be flawed. Despite all my grumbles about smuggers and the change in the school environment from cosy to clinical, the SMU experience has been nothing but beneficial for me. In the past 3.5 years, I've done so many things that I never would have imagined myself even attempting and it is all thanks to the opportunities that the school has provided, the wonderful professors who are always willing to impart their knowledge and my amazing friends who are always there for me. I'm unsure how much more the school will change with the incoming batches but I will always look back at my university years with fond memories of the crazy things my friends and I did.

Before I risk sounding like an SMU advertisement (which I absolutely have no intention to), here's wishing all the best to those who are graduating this semester! Let's make this last semester a kickass one that we'll never forget!

500th Post

- Return of the Baby Monster -

School

I have been trying to improve my photo-taking skills of people, simply because I'm terrible in people-photography. It's difficult to capture the naturalness, for the lack of a better word, of people on camera. It's even harder to do it with a point-and-shoot digital camera. Thank goodness for lovely friends who are sporting enough to pose for you in your school campus. :)