*526 - weather report

-22 degrees leh. Going to cannot tahan already I think! Plz don't go lower, hor.

*525 - winter wonderland

I'm sitting here in my cozy room, watching gusts of wind carry thick swirls of snow past my window. The trees, the bushes, the lamps, the buildings - the everything and the everyone - are all dressed in white fluff and laced with white icicles. Praise God for such amazing, amazing beauty! I must have squealed for 10 minutes without stopping last night when we were driving through the campus; it's never looked more like a winter wonderland than it does right now.

My favourite moment is when the sun manages to peak out from behind the greyness - bits of snow catch the rays and glint like little buried jewels, and I just get so awestruck by the pretty sparkly whiteness around me.

And today's proof again that God makes everything work out in the end (: Like Joseph was saying, Phil 4:6-7! I was stressed to nearly-tears yesterday, but it's all okay now. God sends little things in my life to keep me smiling. Nurturing pretty paperwhites to life on my windowsill. Bringing a pot of pretty tulips to Jenny which made her happy which made me happy. Taking comfort in knowing that someone's looking out for me in a really sweet big sibling - little sibling way (: Discovering between classes that one of my dance practices today has been cancelled. Getting excited about travel plans and the possibility of meeting the sis in HK over summer. Meaning to walk back right after morning classes but instead bumping into and feeling loved by a handful of friends, one after another, who wanted company. Reaching dorm-sweet-dorm and discovering that my next class has been cancelled because of the snow storm. So all I have left for the rest of today is a dance class, a dinner date with dear Katie, and a lot of time (hopefully) to write a paper, an essay, an essay draft, a project proposal, to study for tomorrow's prelim, and to make a million earrings for my sweet, forgiving E&E customers.

And now for a quick nap.

I'm in such a pleasant mood. Thank You God.

Bliss. (:

*524 - frenzied post

... If all the earth
Should every passing moment praise my worth,
I would prefer abuse from Leili's heart
To all creation's eulogizing art -
The world's praise cannot equal Leili's blame;
Both worlds are less to me than Leili's name.

It sounds masochistic when you first read it, but it actually made a lot of sense to me.

-



I caught the sun just as it was setting from the top of Karyatis, right after tumbling off the ski lift with Dan. Pretty!

And I just got myself a snowboard! Awesome.

-

Time is passing way too quickly; perhaps because of all the 5 am nights. Days after 5 am nights are always a frenzy of rushing to school on 2 hours of sleep, rushing back and forth between classes to catch a few winks, and trying to be productive the rest of the time.

Oops it's 7.54 pm: dance in 6 minutes! Running off now. So much for an update :P

*523 - dreams

Today's my I-don't-give-a-damn-about-acting-like-a-Hotelie day.

I was literally sobbing over financial accounts last night and crawled into bed at 4 am. Needless to say, I crawled back out of bed this morning feeling like a nervous wreck. Didn't bother with contacts, prettying up, or dressing up (breaking Hotelie rule #1). Struggled through one class, gave up, went back to sleep, woke up to do readings. Slipped my way to class (I hate slush + boots with no grip), went for dance, and am feeling so antisocial (breaking Hotelie rule #2) that I'm back in my room now because being alone is much more appealing than the thought of going out for dinner and having to pretend to be happy.

During my nap between classes, I had a happy dream. So happy that I wanted to cry when I woke up because that little moment of happiness was gone. Perhaps that's what lucid dreams are for. To live in a different reality just for a while. Or perhaps that would be even sadder, knowing that your dreams come true only in your dreams.

*522 - HADM105

First midterm of the semester over! It went quite well, especially for the amount that I studied, praise God. Must learn to trust and not to stress out!

(Wowww, I just noticed that the results are out already, just over an hour after the exam officially ended. That's efficiency for you.)

Sundays/Mondays/Tuesdays are always an insane rush.

Sunday was spent rushing homework till 4 am,
waking up 3 hours later for classes,
rushing back between classes to write an essay,
rushing to dance etc,
getting back at 9 pm,
rushing homework till midnight,
beginning studying for today's midterm at midnight and concussing at 3 am,
waking up in a panic to Raina's "Hey girlie I'm waiting outside!" at 8.18 am,
throwing on clothes and sprinting like the wind and making it to class 5 minutes early at 8.35 am (a new record for sure – I'm so proud),
ending classes at 4.30 and studying in Sibley (nice library!),
skidding through the snow back to Statler for my midterm,
making my way back to a cup of hot milo,
and settling down to do accounting homework and FWS readings now.

My heart's still racing.

Breathes.

It's always ok in the end though. I know I say this all the time. But no matter how much I think I can't, God always can, which means that I always can! (:

To end off, a ridiculous bathroom photo of me in my housekeeping outfit:



8-hour housekeeping practicum. I honestly don't think I'll be involved in hotel operations in the future (keeping my options open though), but I'm so glad I had to do this practical ... we shadowed housekeepers around Statler and helped to make about 10 rooms each. I made beds (triple-sheeting omg heavy), dusted, vacuumed, arranged, etc. And now I really appreciate housekeepers and all the behind-the-scenes people. Their jobs are tough, and they're all amazing people with amazing stories. All the littlest things you don't even notice in hotel rooms - how the TV's adjusted to just the right volume, how your chair's tilted at just the right angle, how your soaps and lotions are arranged in just the right order - are the result of hard work from employees who want you to have the best service experience but whom you never even think about. I really appreciate them now (:

*521 - snowwoman

I'm back in my dorm between classes to take an hour's nap and write an essay. Because I slept at four-freaking-am last night and 3 hours of sleep isn't enough to tide me through my Monday which ends at 9 pm.

The weather has been asdfl;kjasdf;lj crazy lately. Just a while ago, it started getting warmer and the whole covered-with-white landscape we saw in December never happened again. In fact, it got so warm that for a couple of days, lots of girls brought out the miniskirts and hot shorts and boys wore tees and berms. (That was about 5 deg C haha.)

And then yesterday, it was snowing so much that visibility was pretty much the distance between 2 trees, and the wind was so strong that it literally blew me away. It sounds funny but I was actually really scared. It's freaky enough to struggle against the wind and cold with chunks of snow flying into your eyes, what more when suddenly the wind gets unimaginably strong and you see a huuuuge tsunami wave of snow hurtling towards you from 50 metres away but there's nothing you can do except to close your eyes and hope that it doesn't cut your face up too bad.

But I still had the mind to whip out my camera and snap a photo and a video when things had died down a little. Hahaha typical Evelyn. (The irony was that the sun was shining so prettily and the skies were so blue that it actually looks kind of pleasant in the photo.)



The worst part is that my room is an icebox. My heater's turned up to the max but I had to sleep in 2 layers of pants, socks, a tank + a sweater + a hoodie + a SCARF, and 2 blankets, but I still woke up shivering all the way until I got to nice, warm Statler 1 hour later.

I think they should give students who come from the tropics more heat in their rooms.

-16 deg C out today, I don't feel like walking back to school.

Hahaha I find this whole "winter" nonsense pretty amazing.

*520 - Cancun day THREE

1. Gong xi fa cai! And welcome to the year of the lao shu. Miss the family.

2. I haven't quite had the time over the past week to breathe, but the weekend's here again, and I'm taking a moment to pause and catch my breath. A lot of it is my fault, though; if I only had the self-control to use my time wisely, I would be a lot less gan cheong in general. (Eg. no more sleeping at 5 am when I have to wake up at 7 the next day with a 4 hour practical to do.)

3. My camera? An outdated little Panasonic Lumix whose best selling-point (in my opinion) is that it's pink. (A really pretty shade at that.) It's good enough for me, but if you want a really good camera, don't get this one. Haha! I think the trick is to know your camera. And to take 1000000 shots of everything, because chances are that at least one will turn out nicely.

4. I remember
I know you remember
But I think I know what you remember
(which is not what I choose to remember)
Same circumstances, different perspectives -
Or rather, (different) selective memories.

5. WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME ABOUT THE WORMS? I think I need to go for therapy in preparation for March. Holy crap.

6. God is awesome. Charmed by the most perfect lover. His love is greater than unconditional; His love is conditional - not upon me (we all know that would spell doom for me) - upon His perfect son. So. He loves me! :D And you!

-

To continue the Cancun photos! (I'm slowly uploading them, bit by bit.)

Day 3!

Hurtling down the streets in the bus: an experience in itself.
The bus drivers drive absurdly fast, the buses come twenty times a minute, and the fares are negligible. Love it.


We drove a SPEEDBOAT. My first time ever.
Most exciting thing I've done in a while!


It was exhilarating. Zipping over the water, wind in our hair, sun beating down, surrounded by postcard-worthy scenery ...






And then, we went SNORKELLING!! My first time ever as well.
Swimming around the beautiful fishies and corals ... wow.


Our dear little guide.


(The only downfall to our speedboat/snorkeling experience was the bunch of old (age-wise), pre-pubescent (behavior-wise) guys who were with us, who thought that they were very funny but weren't actually. One shoved me off my boat. I thought that was pretty unnecessary.)

Pulling on clothes over wet swim suit = wet pants


Lovely little restaurant ... our server was really cute.
(Ah, Mexicans.)




Spending the night at Senor Frogs! Restaurant + discotheque.


A lot of alcohol and dancing and blasting music and screaming emcees and drunk people and drunk boys trying to hook up and drunk people on stage doing funny things


I think Hips Don't Lie was playing, and I was contemplating whether to try out Shakira's boob-heaving moves
(I didn't.)




Back at the hotel (pretending to be?) drunk

*519 - be my valentine