*problem free philosophy*

today = last day of classes.

it's amazing. it was said multiple times today alone, but seriously? where has this year gone! i could swear that only a week ago, i was packing up crazy amounts of boxes in my room back home, trying to make copious notes and lists of things that i was leaving behind. now we're nine months down the track, and i'm still left with lots of lists and lots of boxes.

in terms of today's activities, in addition to getting freaked out by last classes and past exam papers, both of which served as solid reminders of how much work i HAVE NOT done during semester, the downside of today was that it also bore some not so good news.

at the same time, while not so good news is just that: not so good, the positive part is that it's always accompanied by warranted procrastination!

after refusing to go home, i ended up train-ing it over to rach's office in north sydney, where she put me to work pummelling everything i was feeling into getting these goodie bags sorted for a technology expo that's happening next week. in total there were around 800 bags? intense!! as we left, there were stacked bags everywhere, all over the office!


note: the hello panda fuel.

the second great thing about not so good news is: shouting. and by this i mean. rach was sweet: she bought me dinner. =p

for now, bad news or not. the reality is that exams start in seven days. which means. necessary end of procrastination and. even more necessary end of getting caught up in thoughts that i should leave alone for now.

so you know what? i've decided to reconcile two themes:
(1) phil 4:6 - be anxious for nothing; and
(2) hakuna matata. =D

*trends*

i am surely guilty of repetitious behaviour.



every exam period, without fail, i end up watching a season of gilmore girls. until this is done, studying can't start.

12 days until the first exam.

guess i should be glad i'm on disc 6. =)

*little gifts.*

leaving off from last time, i said that all i've got left are questions.

since then, i've come to the conclusion that questions are most definitely a good thing. i need to question progress, achievements, goals, attitudes, faith. why? because therein lies the potential to grow.

due to my 'mood' this week, my music playlist turned out being a heck of a lot more somber than usual. but for some reason, this song was at the top of the list. eventually, i just deleted everything else and hit 'repeat'.

after listening to it about 15 times, i looked up the lyrics and realized that this says something that's actually really, very true. here goes:

I've heard it said
That people come into our lives for a reason
Bringing something we must learn
And we are led
To those who help us most to grow
If we let them...



it's true. it might all have been in one day's work, but i'm glad to know now that my 'worst curse' has officially been absolved: i actually DO know what i'm thankful for.

aren't you glad? 'coz now i can be all smiles. again. =)

and lastly, just a side note: although i often think it's wrong for boys to be able to sing so high, sam and nick. they do it so well, don't they?

*fly by*

months have passed and now i'm feeling a tad bit pensive.

since my last post, quite a few things have gone down.

(1) my first set of law school exams have come and gone: after the stress and relative indignation, results came back and it seems that my stress wasn't so warranted after all.
(2) heaps of people from home came to visit: the chubs, jerry, randall, veron and then mum. it was good fun and we ate WAY too much. i have heaps of awesome food photos (*cough*) which will someday make it up here.
(3) i ended up going to MYC over the winter break- which was great! i got to meet heaps and heaps of other unsw students and got the chance to learn a lot as well.
(4) we "road-tripped" to wollongong and canberra. i'll just say now that i'm glad i moved to sydney and not some small ass town that's in the middle of nowhere. for me, big-city-living can never be overrated.
(5) lastly, after 10 hours in a line, one free beanie, scarf and lots of free food later... i finally got the iPhone 4!!!

okay. now because it is week 5 and it's coming to "that time of semester", i've been questioning lately why postgraduate students do what they do. when you boil it down to its very essence, it's difficult to escape the fact that postgrad law is self-inflicted pain and torture. it's a strange "feeling" to be so bitter and conflicted over something that was voluntary in the first place.

the grand hope now, is that at the end of all the whining and grumbling, three years down the track it's all going to make sense and hopefully, it'll all be worth it. but still, the future seems elusive and the present just seems so.... well for a lack of an alternative adjective... annoying. =.=

i'm going to sign off on the following cliche: there really is nowhere but up from here.

=p

*weekend adrift*

i finally set aside some hours for 'social' time over this weekend. i'd say i was pretty *well rewarded*.

saturday was the cLaw bake off. cinnamon scrolls, half a pecan-pie (because the crust felt more like being on the floor than staying in the pie pan), butter cookies, apple and cinnamon wholemeal muffins and truly authentic biscotti. yum yum.

the afternoon started off on an *eventful* note, with me walking up three flights of concrete stairs carrying two bags of mixing bowls, cookie cutters, butter and flour - to the wrong apartment, then walking back down, only to realise that wearing thongs on a rainy day was a really really bad idea. just after the stepping off the top step, the water got the better of me and i slipped, tripped and fell, and went flying down the stairs, only to land squarely on my ass and elbow about 6 stairs down. the only thing that enforced the hilarity of the moment was the fact that there was a young boy (probably 7-8 yrs old), who was helping his mom carry in the groceries, who said, with his mouth gaping open, "are you okayyyyy????" he then proceeded to tell me a story about how he did the exact same thing last week when he was coming home from school and how he had "slid down the stairs like a water slide". he also stopped to emphasise that he had his backpack on, and that was the only thing that shielded his butt from the excruciating pain that apparently, i was experiencing. and yes, there was a reference to my butt. =.= so after a good minute of half-lying on the stairs, i gathered my things and my pride and got up to go and find the right stairwell leading to jess' apartment.

and as things would have it, i now have a massive bruise on my back to attest to my clumsiness.

lesson 1: don't wear thongs on a rainy day.

i feel an onus to point out now that here i sit, on a rainy day, in the postgrad lab at uni, with thongs on. *sigh*. at least you can be sure that i'm gonna be avoiding concrete stairwells for the rest of today!!

the *eventfulness* of the afternoon continued. as i alluded to before, annabelle was taking the pie crust out of the oven, and in just a split second when i was walking by, i saw the pan falling... so naturally i put out my hand to try and catch it. between the two of us, we were completely helpless and now, as a result of my insensitivity to heat, i've got a boil on my arm to prove my failure of catching the stupid pan.

lesson 2: heed friends' advice when they warn that just because you can't feel that something's hot, doesn't mean that you're not gonna get burnt.

then came sunday.

went out to a 21st party for a guy in my bible study group. i gotta say. the entire afternoon reminded me of home: from the masses of food to the distinct different groups of friends, the video-speech in lieu of the person not being able to make it for the party to the "speech" his mom gave... just everything.

and it ended up making me feel pretty "introvertedly" reflective. maybe that's just a synonym for lonely. that much is unclear.

i just kept thinking about friendship and the timeline across how friendship occurs, develops and grows. as i asked trish last night, how long do you think it takes for acquaintances to become friends? and how long does it take friends to become good friends? and then good friends, best?

it was probably a softer (and significantly less painful) note to end my weekend on, but at the end of the day, sunday made me think a lot and now, i still get amazed at how the ideas of "friends" and "family" are universal.

anyhow, a bruise, a burn and a couple of new friends later... my weekend was pretty complete.

*bumbling along*

in one word, living in a new city could be summed up as many things. some would say "exciting", "exhilarating" or even just downright "awesome". i, however, choose to stick with "interesting".

there's something about it when you wake up one morning and you realize... 'hey. this is my home now'. this happened to me just the other day. it was one thing to be here when the delivery guy dropped off 19 massive boxes of stuff that got shipped over from perth. but it's quite another to realize that when everything is unpacked and in its new home... that you're settled. but the thing i've realized is that there's a strong dichotomy between being physically settled and emotionally settled.

i'm not sure how this gets measured or how it's even quantified. but at the end of the day, can people have more than one place that they call "home"? i think it would really suck to move to a place and to never ever feel at home. to me, that would feel like a waste of time, because at the end of the day, you want to feel comfortable in a new place so that you can get the most out of it. maybe it's the friends that you make and the people you meet which make you comfortable and thus, make you feel at home. or maybe is the familiarity of the activities or the realization of a 'better' or more enjoyable lifestyle.

either way, it all comes back to the fact that change takes time. perhaps before i would've been too impatient or too short-sighted to see it. but now i feel like i'm really into this.

moving here was a good thing. a very good thing, indeed.