2012 & 2013: A Review, in lists

Countries & cities travelled

Malaysia: Penang (with Maddie and FJ), KL (with Andrew & Sam / with family)

England and Scotland: Oxford, London, Edinburgh, Coventry, Stratford-upon-Avon, Barnet (with various awesome people, and mostly on my own)

Australia: Canberra, Sydney, and all the little towns in between e.g. Wollongong, Kiama (with family)

Indonesia: Jakarta (with SOT people)

US: New Haven (Connecticut), Boston (Massachusetts), Brooklyn & Manhattan (New York) (with school)

Greece: Athens, Ancient Olympia, Delphi (with school)

Nepal: Kathmandu, Pokhara (with family)

Wow, all except KL are first-times! That's what youth is for.

Jobs / internships

Teaching: Crescent (internship), ACJC (relief), City College (supplementary lessons)

Private tuitoring

Waitressing

Interning at the Yale-NUS Admissions Office

(okay, in 2010 I did a little something with Geraldine at Health Promotion Board where we had to record down various nutritional information of all the cheeses, sauces, milk, fruit juices etc. at NTUC. It was insane. I remember sitting on the floor being surrounded by soy sauce bottles and Geraldine just bringing more and more. Okay in 2009 I was hired to blog for polyorjc.sg which was hilarious. But I did a post about God and someone got furious and demanded we do something about it before he sued us, so they let me off the blogging contract but still paid me the full amount. Hey, I'm not complaining.)

(Shucks, I wanted to try working at a hotel and stuff, what happened to that?!)

Musicals, plays, etc.

Wicked

A Chorus Line

Some wacky Harry Potter thing

The Phantom of the Opera (in London! Best musical I've watched)

Some other comedy play in London that would've been funnier if we could get their thick accents

Cirque Du Soleil: Saltimbanco, Noir

Jersey Boys

Avenue Q (Off-Broadway, but still, NEW YORK CITY!)

Notre Dame De Paris 

I probably missed out one or two... Still, though, the best musical in terms of visual experience was definitely The Lion King. Chicago, which I watched in 2010, was also fantastic. 

Definitely have to catch Les Mis eventually, hopefully in London. I put the full blame on Theo for refusing to watch Les Mis when we were there, saying it was damn boring and he fell asleep and all. URGH should NOT have listened to you man. OMG it's showing on Broadway in March. And Rent is doing its 20th anniversary tour in London now!!!!!

Speaking of Rent...

AND I WILL!

No relationships, thankfully, but Frozen teaches us that love comes in other forms too.
In fact, I'll probably go back to 2011 for this, because a lot of people showed me love then, and I can't talk about friendships without thinking back to the AC days.

(NOTE: really long and not worth reading lol you can ctrl-F your name)

AC: Amelia and our long breaktime chats; Pau and the loving, amazing sister that she was (also the foster brothers FJ and Seokhoon yay); Derrick for being so bloody freaking selfless and such a lovely friend, bearing with all my nonsense; the entire exco - Abi and our occasional really good chats, Justin and just being there when I needed him, Emme's bubbliness and honest outspokenness, Gerou's love, Geri's sincerity (and how much she loves God after coming to Him only in JC! Another miracle I need to remember), Alex and everything that he did in the months that I was feeling down, and... the one and only Goh Wei Liang. My PR subcomm, all wacky and insane and with all its problems but heck yeah we were awesome, with special thanks to Rachel (much love), Jaslyn and Hyun. Ah, the three boys were always insane together, the life of PR. And Van was amazing too. And Yue Cong, ah everyone had such different personalities that came together so beautifully, I love you guys. And of course MR FONGGGG

It's sad that I only continue to keep in relatively close touch with Derrick and Wei Liang now - everyone's so busy with their new lives. But, considering the very sad fact that I don't keep in touch with anyone from Crescent anymore, perhaps two is enough.

2012 and 2013: Ruo Wei (and oi Haoyang!), Rachel and Teressa, Sarah and Sumay; Andrew and Sam; Willie and Ben and Daniel; Hsieh Wen (for always being so loving although I'm a bitch of a friend) and Yale-NUS - Kevin, for every single tiny and humungous thing (I could write an essay); Sau; Dylan; Wan Ping, Evan, Chris Tee; Ami; Pei Yun, Charlotte; Carissa, Janel; Baoyun, Yixuan; Denise, Joshua, Carmen, Aleithia, Anthea and all the rest of the amazing CF people (special thanks to Daryl for always being so reassuring and helpful and everything); the little things in the little moments spent with Val, Adrian, Sanjana, and also the lunch date with Kei. Subhas - we don't talk much, but the couple of times we've spoken are the times you made me banana milkshake because you felt I needed it, and the time I was looking really down and you sat me down on your bed to tell me that I had a very big heart but I needed to be strong for those who needed me. You, too, have a very big heart. Adlin, YOU'RE SO SWEET AIYO!! Ximin for our occasional but awesome chats, and for being with Regina because it's SO FRIGGIN' SWEET!!! Also, as much as I would like to deny it, Rohan and Theo - you've taught me a lot (more than I'd like to have to think about hard enough to be able to articulate).

I've probably missed out a lot of people and later on I'm going to go HOSHIT and scramble to add it in, but I am so so thankful for each individual in my life. I mean, I obviously don't talk to everyone on that list a lot - most of my time is spent doing school readings in Kevin's room in silence, right? But I'm thankful for every single individual in my life, even those I've only talked to once or twice, because you've taught me or reminded me of something, given me a memory.

I remember the little things - like Jolanda noticing that I was sad and giving me the sweetest note and chocolate; Keziah knocking on my door with tea and coming in for a chat - and the lovely things, like Carissa and Janel coming to sing me a song when I was down, and just, so much love. So much love in my life right now and I need to grow it more. I am so thankful, because there are all these people who like having me as a friend and who really trust me. And I promise that this year, I'll start forging closer friendships with these people, knocking on their doors too and reciprocating the trust and writing more post-its. There are so many people I want to get to know better, too! I'm really excited for the new semester. It's going to be hectic since I'm taking a course overload (Japanese on top of my four modules), but I am going to get out there and forge closer friendships because there is so much depth and love in each person in Yale-NUS. Gonna write more post-its.

Okay no seriously, there are so many people I would like to get to know better. This is crazy. Yale-NUS is an amazing place.