My Long Silence...

No doubt I have been silent on this blogsite for a considerably long period of time! I am glad to be back here again. But I don't know I will ever update my blog in the near future. The chances of doing that are pretty low, considering that I could do the exact same thing on Facebook - all with just a click of a mouse. Anyhow, I am gonna keep this blogsite permanently. Why? Go and glance through all my links, and you will understand. ;)

Savannah - A Haunted City of America

Everyone, I apologise for being "silent" for so long! The reason? Well, long story...

Firstly, during the winter break in Virginia, US, I had relatively little access to the internet. In my aunt's house, there was no wireless connection - the only source of internet was via my aunt's computer. That should be good enough, but still I have 3 other cousins who would need to use it for their purposes - mostly games and email. Hence, with the limited chances, whenever I could lay my hands on her computer, I would only use it to check my email.

Secondly, upon my arrival in Vancouver, I had only 5 hours to prepare my stuff for my classes the following day. Thus, my presumption that I could update my blog before school reopened was unfortunately false. Since then, homework started to set in, and again my busy life began on a full steam.

Anyhow, below is a short account of my experience written during my stay in South Carolina (which I was unable to upload due to the scarcity of time):

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On 28 December 2008 (Sat.), the Taylors and I went to the famous "City of Ghost" for a "stroll." It was mainly to meet with Uncle Chapman's ex-college mate, Aunty Joe. Beforehand, we had gotten the chance to tour around the old capital city of Georgia.

Founded in 1733 by an English captain Oglethorpe, Savannah was rumoured to have its name when Oglethorpe's sailors spotted it from afar and thought that they had reached a place called "Savannah" in Africa. Besides, there's another ladies' tale surrounding the coming of the city name: There was a group of women onboard the ship heading to the New World when one of them fell into the sea and so came a shout, "Save Anna!!"

To explore it, we had a horse-carriage ride around the city. It was fun, and I had managed to capture countless pictures - of Victorian-style houses lining the streets, of monuments scattered here and there, of the people doing their daily routines, etc etc. If you want to view them, simply go to my Picture Gallery on the right, under Links.

For your information, Georgia was once among the strongholds of the Confederates during the American Civil War. So, in all souvenir shops, you would see lots of items displaying the Confederate's flag, the money notes, and the old photographs of the struggle. I could even find a replica of an old sword used during that time!

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A Brief South Carolina Vacation (plus some thoughts)

That's right! I am now in South Carolina, a state in the south-eastern part of USA. The temperature is very mild, ranging from 60'F to 75'F (around 16'C to 24'C). Together with Aunty Lin and her family, we flew to a beautiful place called Palmetto Bluff to spend one nice week of enjoyments and eating (Yes, we had palatable food every meal). I had a wonderful time together with my cousins Crawford, Jade, and Jarman. Also, I had finally mastered cycling here! Since the quickest means of transportation to travel around the place is a bicycle, I had little choice but to pick up the skill. It was so hard!!! After trying too hard an attempt to balance myself on the vehicle for hours, my bottom part turned sore, but thankfully I could still walk. =) Nevertheless, it took me 3 days to fully master the skill, and thank God that I had never fallen down so far.

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Well, I know the above "narration" is kind of short. I don't truly understand why I could not pen everything down, when in fact I have many things that I would like to share. Maybe it's simply too impossible to do so, or maybe I have changed. Changes are inevitable - with one's adaption to new and foreign environments, one would definitely change. However, change itself should not the main concern. It is a change to either good or bad that matters...

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I once played an MSN prank on Constance when I introduced myself as the "ME-man" in a superhero style. M stands for Medicine, and E for Engineering. No doubt I am studying for a degree in engineering, but why medicine? Since small, I had been very susceptible to diseases, namely runny nose, fever, sore throat, chicken pox, mumps, measles, shingles... Also, I grew up in a family that requires quite a number of medical attentions, like my late grandpa with heart disease and kidney failure. Hence, I know relatively lots of medicines which are needed to treat or prevent certain illnesses, thus the letter 'M'...

... to be continued ...

University Chapel, plus some thoughts....

This is the worship atmosphere at University Chapel which is about half-an-hour's walk away from my residence. The chapel appears like a brethren church, but in fact (as it claims) it is a non-denominational church. This traditional-looking church is a rather close-knit community where everyone just works together for the good of others - something that I can rarely see in churches nowadays.

The senior pastor is the most cheerful guy you can see in church. Well, sadly, I have NEVER ever talked to him personally before, despite the fact that I have been there for 3 months! Nonetheless, I have met many new (and great!) people there, like Nik (who migrated from Hong Kong at age 6), Janet (staff at Inter-Varsity Friendship Group), Carl (one of the founding fathers of Regent College - a well-known Bible school in Canada - who went on to establish another seminary in Europe), and etc. etc. etc.

Nevertheless, mentioning my friends, I feel very disheartened to see that many of them, though they claim themselves to be "Christians," are not truly followers of the faith. Some go to church only once in a while, or only when they feel "like it;" whilst others cite various stupid excuses for not living a Christian life, such as "No la, I am busy with my assignments mah..." (by a Malaysian who migrated to Calgary), "Erm, I want to play badminton!" (also by a Malaysian, a JPA scholar), "Yes, I am a Christian, but I last went to church when I was 13" (this time by a Chinese), and several others.

Certainly, I am NOT trying to say that going to church is what makes a Christian "Christian" - all I mean is that to be a Christian, one must not just blindly believe and then ignorantly place that (i.e. Christianity "la") as his belief in his ID. Instead, he or she should have, after having made the ultimate decision to believe Jesus as Saviour, followed and walked with Him faithfully. Of course even good Christians might fall in their life journey, but that should not also be an excuse for not following Him!

Apparently, it is not that easy to embark on such a journey of faith, believing that God will provide for you as you make sacrifices in your decison-making process. Well, let's just take a look at Abraham. (If you didn't know him, he's a great man who went to settle down at a place where God asked him to go, and his descendants are mainly the present day's Jews and Arabs). When God called him to leave his home to "God-knows-where," he, without knowing where he was supposed to go, just left everything to follow God's will. It's not a hard a thing, you might say, to leave one's family to start a new one elsewhere. (If you say so, you should either be just an excited undergrad in a foreign land or someone who hates his family. Who doesn't miss home anyway?) Back to Abraham, the decision that he made had eventually changed the whole course of his life. (To read more about him, just press here!)

Sorry for being so "preachy" here, but I just want to share my thoughts with you. Anyway, I think I have to stop now, otherwise I will not be able to finish my Medieval History readings. With my final exams coming in a week's time, I suppose I will only upload another blog entryduring Christmas, provided that I have Internet access in my aunt's house in Virginia, US (Yes, I am going to spend my winter break in US). If possible, I will try to upload the remaining camera pictures on my picture gallery - should be around 100 left - as you wait for my next entry. Happy waiting, and God bless!

Busy Busy Busy...

Yeah, no doubt from the title itself you can already know my situation here. Lots of work and studies have to be done - all within a short period of time. And I am pretty sorry for not being able to write about my experience here for all this while. But I have taken LOTS and LOTS of pictures! About 600 over of them had been uploaded, and the rest is about to come. Hope you will like the pictures, and I will explain to you briefly all that have taken place throughout my first term in UBC (only when I am free ~ Sorry...). You can peep at them by clicking at the link "**My Picture Gallery" on the right-hand margin, and do make sure that you leave your comments there!

If you desperately want to know roughly what has really happened to us here, you can always check out some of the blogs written by my friends (of course from Malaysia la!), namely Chai Jui, Jun Sian, Wei Zhang, Lee Lung, Song Ci, and some others (I can't think right now as it's already past 12.30am). So I will just leave this blog for your own "scrutiny" for these few weeks then. God bless!