Super busy weekend

Had an incredible weekend. See the title. It was busy but fantastic. And a little bit of a stretch but not too bad.

So my weekend started Friday morning. That's right. I skipped a math class. Which wasn't too bad cos I managed to understand whatever they covered by reading the textbook later, thank God. :) Friday morning I went with the mendicants to San Jose airport to catch a flight to Denver, Colorado. We were there to sing at an alumni gathering. So we arrived arnd 2pm Denver time, and there was a snowfall like one or two nights before so the landscape was incredible. The area is really flat and then there's loads of mountains so it's really pretty. Took a lot of photos but this one kinda sums it all up:

That's a picture of Denver (it's the name of the city) as we were driving from the airport. Beautiful.

So we stayed at the hotel where the alumni gathering was being held. It was REALLY nice.

Went for lunch (all our meals were paid for), ate at this 60's-style burger joint that served fantastic burgers and REALLY gd miilkshakes (my strawberry banana milkshake had real banana in it and they even gave the remaining milkshake tt couldn't fit in the glass in the metal can tt u use to shake the milkshake). In the evening we went to the reception where we mingled with the alumni in between singing songs. Had a 2 hr break after that while the alumni were listening to a couple of speakers, then went back to do the same as had dessert and left. Some of the guys went out for a movie after that; I went with Lance (the guy sitting on the bed in the picture above) to grab a bite and a drink. Very stupidly left my debit card at the restaurant so I cancelled it and ordered a new one when I got back. Woke up at 6am the next day to take a flight back. Fantastic scenery from the plane.



Was so tired when I got back so I took a 3.5 hr nap. :P

Had a performance at the West Coast A Cappella showcase in Berkeley that Sat evening. Went pretty well, I quite enjoyed the concert. The next morning I woke up early to go to San Fran with Chris. Met up with Yinshan (fellow MAS scholar and Berkeley student) there too. We went to Christian City Church San Fran together (www.c3sf.com). It was a fantastic service and we stayed arnd during lunch to talk to some of the staff and pastors. The journey to and fro took almost 2 hrs each way; hopefully I can get a ride from somebody if I decide to go there regularly. After getting back the mendicants had a bbq together with counterpoint, the only female a cappella group on campus. Was a pretty good time but it was really cold; last night was the first night I could consistently see my breath condense.

So yeah, was really tired last night. Managed to do some hw though. I'm now at an outdoor cafe drinking a juice smoothie and typing this. =) Was going to go into the library but decided it's too nice a day to spend indoors.

Tmr I'm leading IHUM section discussion together with another guy. We're meeting tonight to discuss. I'm praying it'll go well... we're leading the discussion of one of the short stories in James Joyce's "Dubliners", a collection of short stories portraying life in Dublin. Cheem. Haha.

Oh btw, daylight savings time has ended so for those of you who've been wondering what time it is over here while you're doing whatever, the time difference is now 16 hrs instead of 15hrs previously. So like 5pm in Singapore is like my 1am on the same day.

Wondering what this new week will bring. We'll see. No more mendicants performances next weekend but our fall concert is coming up so we'll prob still be busy, though not as busy as before. I think. :D

Santa Barbara

Hey all! Wanted to update my blog on Sunday but was too tired. Went down to Santa Barbara (about 4.5 - 5 hrs drive down south, near L.A.) to sing for an ex-mendicant's wedding. It was a REALLY nice wedding reception. Think it must've been real expensive. Anyway Santa Barbara was beautiful. Check out the few photos below:


This is a picture taken from the beach which was walking distance from our motel (our motel's straight up the small road at the center of the pic). The beach was fantastic, much warmer than Santa Cruz, very soft sand, awesome weather. So Santa Barbara is a small beach-front city, and on the other side of the city are mountains (which you can see in the pic). Breathtaking scenery.



Another picture of the beach. Like I said, awesome weather. =)

This is a view of the downtown. Much nicer and more happening than the Palo Alto downtown, there's a lot more things happening there, and it's really very pleasant. Went there for dinner just before going to the wedding.

We rented a 15-seater van and drove down on Saturday, drove back up on Sunday. And of course, being myself, I couldn't help not taking a photo of the van. *grinz* So here it is...


Spent Saturday night at University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) where we met up with a friend of one of the guys in the group, and bumped into a somewhat drunk friend of another guy in the group (the latter was a lot more amusing than the former - no offense Greg... haha...). Sunday morning I went with one of the guys (Solomon, a Korean kid from nearby Stanford whose Dad's a pastor) to a church nearby called Harvest Christian Fellowship. Enjoyed the service, thot it was pretty gd though again a lot of the ppl were a little non-participative. Drove back to Stanford in the afternoon, met with heavy traffic so the journey took 6.5 hrs. XP Took the time to learn some music in the van. haha. So anyway u can see why I was tired on Sun. :)

Flying to Denver tomorrow with the mendicants to sing at an alumni function. I think we get to stay at the hotel where the banquet for the alumni is being held. :) Just found out from one of the guys that it snowed in Denver a day or two ago. So I think it's gonna be cold. Will be back on Saturday, going to Berkeley to sing at the west coast a cappella showcase on Sat night. So it's a pretty packed weekend.

Gtg for class now... my IHUM discussion section is from 6 - 7:30pm. Thank God it's the last class of the day. haha. Kinda tired now, stayed up late last night doing math problems and my music take-home midterm. Had a headache just now but it's a lot better now, thank God! Will try to post pics of Denver when I come back. Till next time! :)

Driving Test

Just got back from brunch after my supposed driving test. I say 'supposed' cos I didn't actually take it. I was supposed to, and Lisa (a Singaporean graduate student here) very generously volunteered to take me. So she picked me up this morning and we got there on time, only to realise that she didn't have her updated insurance and registration with her, which we needed for the test. We rushed back to her place to get it and came back but they said I needed another appointment on another day cos they were quite backlogged and couldn't slot me in. So i'm doing my driving test on Nov 6th. =)

Lisa apologised a few times but it was totally my responsibility to check and ensure that we had all the documents... which I rather unwisely didn't. So even though she took it upon herself to remember it's really no fault of hers.

Oh well, no big loss, I can still drive with my S'pore license. I'll just be patient and wait. =)

So we went to a really nice place for breakfast (at the time we went it was more like brunch) in Menlo Park, a city just north of Palo Alto. It's a very American restaurant, nice country-ish decor. Had a pancake, and skillet (fried toppings and cheese on top of rosti-style potato) and pretty nice coffee. The food was good, and so was the company, so despite the hiccup with the driving test I had a really enjoyable morning, thank God for that. :)

Tmr, the Mendicants are off to Santa Barbara! Singing for an ex-member's wedding there (yes another one). It's roughly 4-5 hrs of driving away, kinda like from S'pore to KL. But with bigger roads. haha. I'll try to update my blog while I'm there, if not i'll update when i'm back. God bless!!

More Photos

Today was De Wen's birthday, and so a whole gang of Singaporeans surprised (more like shocked) him at his dorm at 11+pm last night with a cake. Here's a picture of him during the initial 10 seconds of his shock:

At one point after we were done with the cake, we grabbed him and threw him into the shower. =) No pictures of that yet unfortunately, it's in a friend's camera.

Just got back abt 30 mins ago from San Francisco, went there to meet some other MAS scholars and MAS staff who were in town for dinner. Had dinner in a REALLY nice restaurant... check out the beautiful view of the city that we had:


Not much time to update, gotta study for a math midterm. Will leave u with a few photos that my friend Daniel took of campus:
That's the road leading to the main part of school. I cycle down this road every morning. =) Most of my classes are in a 10-11 o'clock direction in this photo (i.e. behind the trees, as the crow flies).

A view of the oval (on the right side of the picture), which is kinda like a front lawn of the school. Photo taken from the main quad.

The main quad, a rectangular area that forms a central focal point of the school, is on the right (the road in this photo is the same road in the previous photo but now the camera is on the pavement next to the oval grass). The bus that u see is a marguerite bus, a free shuttle service that Stanford runs. I don't take it much, except when going to the caltrain like tonight when I had to go to San Fran.

Busy... :P

Haven't updated my blog in abt a week or so... been pretty busy as you may or may not have guessed. Had a paper due on thursday, and this weekend's pretty busy too. Had that performance tonight, practised driving in the afternoon (kudos to Lisa, a grad student and a fellow Christian from Chi Alpha, who let me practise by driving to a dept store and a couple of supermarkets to stock up on stuff); as for workload, I gotta complete a fair bit of jazz hw (composing melodies - doesn't come easily, esp jazz melodies, to a classicaly-trained me) and math hw (2/3 of which I don't undertstand yet cos the lecturer hasn't taught it yet) by tues, I have to read half a book for IHUM lecture by Monday morning, and there's math midterm on thu.

Speaking of the performance, it went pretty, well, thank God! Thought I did pretty ok. Except for that last note where I think I really went quite out of tune, think my voice cracked a little. Nonetheless ppl were telling me it went well so praise God! =)

Gotta get back to hw now... I mentioned in previous entries that my dorm was pretty small but nice and cosy nonetheless. here's a pic of the courtyard outside my dorm, taken from the dining hall. My dorm's on the left, kinda blocked by a tree. It's really very pleasant. Also below is another pic taken with Chris and his parents just after commencement speech. Just got these pics from my dad via email so here they are.

till next time! :)

Oh Happy Day!

And yet another week has passed. I'll bet it'll be really soon before i'm back in Singapore again. I'll be returning on 20 Dec wed early morning, at smtg like 12:50am I think. Will be back home until 6th Jan, Sat morning. So I'll be arnd for Christmas and New Year! =)

Sang Oh Happy Day with The Mendicants for an ex-mendicant's wedding on Saturday. Our first paid gig as the new batch of mendicants! And I took the solo for the song. Was really quite honored and thankful that I got it cos I really like the song and it's a very simple gospel message song which I personally believe in. So I wanted to do my best. The performance went well, but I think it could've been better. When I'm actually in front of a lot of ppl I tend to get a bit more nervous and I think the sincerity of the solo didn't really come out. Plus the fact that I was just recovering from a cold and had a stuffy nose didn't really help. :P Nevertheless, praise God for a smooth first gig! It's really gd to have a first gig so soon, it forces us to get things going and stuff.

Anyway, there's another chance this Sat! We're singing it for a performance on Sat night, and it'll be in front of a LOT of ppl, many of whom I know, so the pressure's up! But no cold this time, and more familiarity with the song, so I'm praying I'll really deliver it sincerely and professionally. :)

We really have a lot of gigs coming up. This weekend is the performance, the weekend after that we're going to Santa Barbera to sing at another wedding I think, and after that Stanford's flying us to Denver (whoo hoo!!) to sing at a function on Friday night (i think), and then the next day (Saturday) we fly back and sing at the west coast a cappella festival gathering thingamajig at Berkeley (nearer to San Fran, abt an hour's drive north from Stanford). But it's gd cos it forces us to get moving and pick up the pace, and momentum is really so important to a group.

Ok gtg now. Working on my first IHUM paper. I really like the Microsoft Word for mac, it has this notepad feature where the screen appears like a notepad with lines and everything is by default in bulleted form. It even has section tabs like a file. So I'm using that to type out all my thoughts and stuff for my IHUM paper, compiled a list of quotes, and right now I'm doing up an essay plan. Basically it kinda enables me to brainstorm with myself without having to suffer the terrible consequences of my own bad handwriting and poor organisation. ;)

Take care everybardee! God bless!! Drop me emails when u're free, I check my email super frequently now cos every announcement here is done by email. Cheers! =)

Santa Cruz!

Hey!! Sorry this is kinda belated, been a little busy since Mon and Sun I was dead beat

So in the end we took 3 cars and drove abt 1.5 hrs to Santa Cruz, which is down south, on the west coast of the USA. It's a beachside city, and they'd rented a house near the beach to hang out. It was a REALLY SMALL house. haha. but it was cosy and pretty fun. Check out a few pix:




We went to the beach and played kickball, which is basically softball/baseball except played with a volley/soccer ball, and the pitch is rolled and instead of batting u kick the ball. I kinda sucked at it but just played to join in the fun. =) And I can confidently say that I have never been to such a COLD beach. it was FREEZING. Kinda. I walked into the water and my feet were almost numb within a few mins. Had some fun trying to withstand the waves... I got knocked over by one. :) We stayed the night and I was really blessed the next morn cos one of the guys had arranged to go to a nearby church, and I got woken up when he got up, so I went with him. Amazing how God provides! Really enjoyed the service too. The group went to the 'boardwalk' in the afternoon, it was dristling so didn't go on the rides but we did play mini-golf. Sang impromptu to a few girls too at our music director's spur of inspiration. haha. Funny part was that most of us didn't know the whole song cos we only sang one verse for auditions... so we kinda just barely scraped thru. Gd thing we weren't wearing Stanford shirts. haha.

The group consists of 12 guys, only 3 of whom are returning from previous years. Apparently it goes in cycles, and this year happens to be a year when a lot of mendicants are either graduating or moving on to junior/senior year and need the time to do smtg different. Our first gig is this sat: we're singing Oh Happy Day for an ex-mendicant's wedding nearby.

Just got my first IHUM writing assg today. Gotta work on developing a paper. A part of me just feels like groaning and complaining but I guess I shld get round to it soon and get it done with, and in the process work on my writing and literary-analysis skills and stuff like that. :)

It actually rained this afternoon and all the way into the night. It gets pretty cold esp when I'm biking and my hands are wet and the wind is blowing; my hands kinda end up freezing. Apparently it'll start raining more soon. Anyway, on a more positive note, had a great mtg with Chi Alpha tonight. Really felt more plugged into God during worship. Realised that these folks really are my spiritual family for the next few years, so while I'm still looking for a church (and even after I've found one) I really shld get to know them better. Still praying abt which church to join, there are actually quite a few biblically sound charismatic churches in the area so it may be a few more wks before I finally decide. Pray I'll be sensitive to the Holy Spirit's leading.