Time really flies by so quickly, it's already been a month and a week since I arrived in UK, Bournemouth. As mention in all my previous blog, life here has been good so far, really thankful to God for all the experience so far. A little update as to what has been going on.
Since I last mention about what I wanted to do and join, as reality sets in, I am doing none of those things I mention. Haha. Yes apparently it wasn't suppose to be my plan, God plan's is always greater and I'm really speechless when I look back and see how it all fall into place.
I did not join the dance group as it clashes with my Uni's Christian Union (CU) meeting. The christian union meeting is really good, only down side is that it's in town and not in campus so a little far from where I stay. But nevertheless, I decided God before anything else so Christian union over street dance club. Now I'm getting myself involve in Christian Union events and activities. I joined their tea and toast last friday after my work. Tea and Toast is a event where once every 2 weeks on the friday, a bunch of Christian from CU will gather and serve tea and toast to students who go out partying till late at night. It was pretty amazing. Students just walk past the place, come in and talk to us, or to get a cup of hot tea before they go partying. Then at the morning when all the clubs and pubs close they come right back in slightly drunk or wasted and get another cup of hot drink and some toast to eat. It was pretty scary at first when I started seeing drunk students coming in talking loudly and stuff, but as you serve them tea and toast it wasn't really that bad. They started taking all sorts of stuff and that's how conversation starts. It's also amazing see how some of the drunk can play jenga and stack really high up. I met 4 of my coursemates, I've never talked to them before that day. Now 2 of them says hi to me in sch during lectures. Tea and toast made me see another side of giving and asking for no return. And that when you give wholeheartedly, you will gain more than you ever expected you will. Thank God for the wonderful experience and strength to pull all of us through. Oh did i mention the tea and toast is from 11pm-4am. Yeah it was, gonna do it again next week. It's fun and conversation about God would just start out of no where. It's a really good way for me to build up my faith and challenge myself more in terms of knowing and reading the bible more thoroughly. So i can answers the questions that people ask.
Well other than tea and toast, I've sign myself up for learning to lead in worship in CU gathering. I know I gave up the chance when I was offer in AGPC, but I had my reasons back then. Now I feel that it's time and I should learn how to lead worship. I do pray for strength and confidence as I really can't sing very well and I can't play instrument. Well pray that I'll leave everything in God's hands and I really wish I can brush up on my keyboard skills and singing skills while I'm here in UK. Dear Lord, you are the God of songs, the God of music, I just pray that you will help me in learning how to worship you in music.
Well of course to improve on my music sense, skills and stamina I'm doing things to help myself. I've joined the Uni's contemporary choir and I sing while I walk to school (almost everyday, it's a 25min journey). I know walking isn't really very helpful in stamina but it does if you are walking up and down slopes and singing at the same time. I just joined the choir and the people in it are really good, if it had been an audition I wouldn't be inside but I guess it's just a door that God opens for me to learn as well. So I'll just take what is given. :)
And then I joined the CU in their global cafe activity as well. Global cafe is an activity held by the uni, for every international student to meet people and have coffee, tea and cookie together, CU just go there and help or to meet people. I joined the activity this week and met a lovely gal from Indonesia. It's really nice to meet people from around asia because you can talk about the similar problems we face, the food we miss, and the weather of the country. Haha. I'll be going again next week hopefully can meet for people then.
Ah i realise I didn't mention that the events are all happening on the same day. Global cafe is on wed at 5-6.30pm. Choir practice is on wed 6pm-7.15pm. And CU gathering is on wed 7.30pm-9pm. Yes they are one after another but it all works out nicely in a way or another. I just pray that I can have good time management to handle all the activities.
Well talking about all those opportunities, I had another one, I became the rep for my group. It wasn't by vote, I kinda volunteer it. The thing is I don't think anyone in my group knows that I'm the rep, partly cos most can't be bother and it wasn't announced. But nevermind, I just take it as a training (and to get the purple jumper). I need to boost my confidence and communication skills and I really hope that being a rep can help me with it. So that's something else I need to pray about.
Yupz that's kinda my updated so far I think. I'm really getting involve in CU and hope that I can find a church to settle down soon thou i kinda already have one in mind but I'm still keeping my choices open for the moment. Oh i think i didn't mention it in my previous blog, but I'm really grateful to how smooth sailing things has been so far. I really feel blessed and well taken care of my God. From my arrival in UK, the rush for the bus, catching it 1sec before it leaves, finding my homestay accommodation, got lost and got send home by helpful ppl, got sent to my new accommodation by my homestay host, settling in my new house, getting alone with my housemates, making friends in uni, making friends in my course etc. All and all I am so thankful and grateful. Without Him, I wouldn't have come this far, without Him I wouldn't be where I am, and without Him I would be condemn. Dear Lord I thank you for the love you have shown and given me. I pray that you can give me a little bit more strength, faith and confidence so I can go out there and be your salt and light to the world. I love you Lord.
Till next time.
Friday, 21 October 2011
Monday, 10 October 2011
food
Yes, it's merely a month and I'm missing singapore hawker food already. Reason is simple, British food only consist of potatoes, burgers, sandwich, wraps, fish & chips. Yes that is all.
So I really miss all the hawker food in Singapore. And the food culture is really different. I had conversations with my friends about food in Singapore, they were like really shock and find the food that i eat really weird.
1.) british pancakes are really thin and white, they eat it with lemon and sugar
2.) chicken feet, frog legs, bird nest, pig organs (kway chap) are weird to them
3.) some of them have never seen century egg and salted egg
4.) chinese food sounds interested and at the same time weird to them
5.) some of them (most of my friends) have no idea what dim sum are
the sad british people are missing out in a lot of good food. Thank God for the amazing food spread in Singapore and Asia.
So I really miss all the hawker food in Singapore. And the food culture is really different. I had conversations with my friends about food in Singapore, they were like really shock and find the food that i eat really weird.
1.) british pancakes are really thin and white, they eat it with lemon and sugar
2.) chicken feet, frog legs, bird nest, pig organs (kway chap) are weird to them
3.) some of them have never seen century egg and salted egg
4.) chinese food sounds interested and at the same time weird to them
5.) some of them (most of my friends) have no idea what dim sum are
the sad british people are missing out in a lot of good food. Thank God for the amazing food spread in Singapore and Asia.
Monday, 3 October 2011
settling down in Bournemouth and in Uni
It's 1 more day and I'm in UK for 3 weeks. All has been good so far, my housemates are really great people to live with. I don't have to deal with ppl having parties in halls or in house and stuff as I heard lots about other people's accommodation. So I'm really thankful about my accommodation and housemates.
Really thankful that my bank account is sorted out as well. Had some problems about bank account in my first week and was really stress about it. Thank God it's been set up and $$ is on the way, now I can pay my rent. Finding my way around is not really hard with a map on hand, but without the map every road is like every other road. As mention before the buses timings are something that I have to get use to. But busing is too expensive here so I walk to school, it's kind of my only form of exercise. I'm glad I've got my perm phone number up as well. My previous number is costing me too much money as it's mainly use for international calls. Culture shock has come and pass really quickly so I'm thankful about that as well.
I've made a few friends in my course and really thankful about that as everyone tends to just form into groups on the first day of school as they met each other the week in clubs before in freshers, so i was really glad i found some friends that I can click with. Although the difference in culture and the kind of shows and music we listen tends to be different in some ways and I find it hard to communicate sometimes but I guess these are the things I need to brush up on.
Lesson just officially started so there's lots of assignments and reading coming in. Still not sure how I feel about school but I guess it'll really be different from working and stuff. There will be lots of writing coming in as well and I'm having butterflies about it. But I guess I'll work it out as it goes. I know that I don't have much to complain about having 3 units a year, 2 units; similar units for 2 terms and 1 unit for the last term. But each unit weights 40 credits, so it's no joke.
Clubs and societies sign up are starting this week. I've drop my e-mail for quite a few and I not really sure which ones I'm going to really stay on. I've wanted to join the musical theatre group as tech and it seems like they just call us on when they have a production, it's good in a way that commitment level is only during the production. There is another theatre group that do mostly original plays and I'm thinking of signing up for that as well. I've drop my e-mail for street dancing, baking club and writers society as well. I would love to go for all and one of my aim was to learn dancing while I'm here. Baking club just sound fun and I love to bake. Writers society is for me to meet writers (for my project in future) and to learn how to write scripts which I think I need to start learning as well. So much to join but so little time. I've sign up for a school ambassador and going to sign up for the student development award and planning to sign up for the DofE award as well. I know I'm a little too ambitious at the moment but first year is like the only time I have to do all these stuff. Anyway I might drop the dance thing and learn it in my 2nd year. Not to mention that I hope to pick up another language as well. Too many things. I shall just see which ones fit into my schedule as I can't have the best of both worlds, most things seems to fall on wed and I can only choose to go for one. Come to think of that there's the Christian union meetings as well.
Mentioning about christian, my church search hasn't really started. I've only been to one church so far, it wasn't bad, teaching is fine so far, read the website it's biblical. The people I've met in the church area really friendly and there's a group of students as well. But the worship session of the church is really different back home, I feel a bit weird, maybe because I'm too use to the way of worship in church back home. Anyway I'll be going to another church this weekend and see how that goes. Will be attending the christian union meeting this wed evening as well. Praying for guidance and pray that I can find a church and settle down soon. I know if I don't settle this in the first two months I'll have the tenancy to stop going for church.
Well mentioning about church and Christianity I just had the most intriguing conversion with my housemates. As I mention that none of my housemates are christian, I just found out that one of them as he says is a soft atheist. Well I'm not really knowledgeable enough as to answer all his queries, his doubts and his point of view. He know lots of religion and just read them as interest. Also because he studies psychology and studies the psychology of religion. I wish I can put some of my thoughts into words and explain to him what I feel about his view point but I'm not really good at that yet. Especially to argue in english. When speaking to him, disong and xian jie came to my mind. I think if he talks to the 2 of them he might get a better picture. Well I guess that's a challenge God has given me. Also to tell me to read more. It is indeed not a road of all smooth sailing, but God's grace and strength will see me through.
Still God is really great and I might be getting a part-time job soon. Not really sure how much hours I need to work for the moment but through the conversion it sounds like roughly 14-16hrs a week. It's pretty alright actually cos it's an evening job. If I work just on fri and sat evening it'll be 13hrs and I can earn about 84.50. Doesn't cover my rent but it'll cover half my rent and most of my living expenses so it's not too bad. If I work more I'll just earn more. But anyway all is still to be confirm. It does seems that I have a lot going on in my life right now and I think I really have to give and take and give some things for my first year. Oh well, I'll just plan as things come my way, really hard to say currently.
Anyway time to sleep, till next time.
Really thankful that my bank account is sorted out as well. Had some problems about bank account in my first week and was really stress about it. Thank God it's been set up and $$ is on the way, now I can pay my rent. Finding my way around is not really hard with a map on hand, but without the map every road is like every other road. As mention before the buses timings are something that I have to get use to. But busing is too expensive here so I walk to school, it's kind of my only form of exercise. I'm glad I've got my perm phone number up as well. My previous number is costing me too much money as it's mainly use for international calls. Culture shock has come and pass really quickly so I'm thankful about that as well.
I've made a few friends in my course and really thankful about that as everyone tends to just form into groups on the first day of school as they met each other the week in clubs before in freshers, so i was really glad i found some friends that I can click with. Although the difference in culture and the kind of shows and music we listen tends to be different in some ways and I find it hard to communicate sometimes but I guess these are the things I need to brush up on.
Lesson just officially started so there's lots of assignments and reading coming in. Still not sure how I feel about school but I guess it'll really be different from working and stuff. There will be lots of writing coming in as well and I'm having butterflies about it. But I guess I'll work it out as it goes. I know that I don't have much to complain about having 3 units a year, 2 units; similar units for 2 terms and 1 unit for the last term. But each unit weights 40 credits, so it's no joke.
Clubs and societies sign up are starting this week. I've drop my e-mail for quite a few and I not really sure which ones I'm going to really stay on. I've wanted to join the musical theatre group as tech and it seems like they just call us on when they have a production, it's good in a way that commitment level is only during the production. There is another theatre group that do mostly original plays and I'm thinking of signing up for that as well. I've drop my e-mail for street dancing, baking club and writers society as well. I would love to go for all and one of my aim was to learn dancing while I'm here. Baking club just sound fun and I love to bake. Writers society is for me to meet writers (for my project in future) and to learn how to write scripts which I think I need to start learning as well. So much to join but so little time. I've sign up for a school ambassador and going to sign up for the student development award and planning to sign up for the DofE award as well. I know I'm a little too ambitious at the moment but first year is like the only time I have to do all these stuff. Anyway I might drop the dance thing and learn it in my 2nd year. Not to mention that I hope to pick up another language as well. Too many things. I shall just see which ones fit into my schedule as I can't have the best of both worlds, most things seems to fall on wed and I can only choose to go for one. Come to think of that there's the Christian union meetings as well.
Mentioning about christian, my church search hasn't really started. I've only been to one church so far, it wasn't bad, teaching is fine so far, read the website it's biblical. The people I've met in the church area really friendly and there's a group of students as well. But the worship session of the church is really different back home, I feel a bit weird, maybe because I'm too use to the way of worship in church back home. Anyway I'll be going to another church this weekend and see how that goes. Will be attending the christian union meeting this wed evening as well. Praying for guidance and pray that I can find a church and settle down soon. I know if I don't settle this in the first two months I'll have the tenancy to stop going for church.
Well mentioning about church and Christianity I just had the most intriguing conversion with my housemates. As I mention that none of my housemates are christian, I just found out that one of them as he says is a soft atheist. Well I'm not really knowledgeable enough as to answer all his queries, his doubts and his point of view. He know lots of religion and just read them as interest. Also because he studies psychology and studies the psychology of religion. I wish I can put some of my thoughts into words and explain to him what I feel about his view point but I'm not really good at that yet. Especially to argue in english. When speaking to him, disong and xian jie came to my mind. I think if he talks to the 2 of them he might get a better picture. Well I guess that's a challenge God has given me. Also to tell me to read more. It is indeed not a road of all smooth sailing, but God's grace and strength will see me through.
Still God is really great and I might be getting a part-time job soon. Not really sure how much hours I need to work for the moment but through the conversion it sounds like roughly 14-16hrs a week. It's pretty alright actually cos it's an evening job. If I work just on fri and sat evening it'll be 13hrs and I can earn about 84.50. Doesn't cover my rent but it'll cover half my rent and most of my living expenses so it's not too bad. If I work more I'll just earn more. But anyway all is still to be confirm. It does seems that I have a lot going on in my life right now and I think I really have to give and take and give some things for my first year. Oh well, I'll just plan as things come my way, really hard to say currently.
Anyway time to sleep, till next time.
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