Two posts in one day?  What???

Yep.

I'm just making this post to say that if you like to look at creative pieces and reading comics, then you might want to check out Boyfriend's webcomic called "Heartland" on which he works with great focus.  Updates are a little slow because life has been quite demanding, but in it, you not only get an interesting story building, but you also get to see the development of his drawing skills.  Here is the link to that: https://heartlandcomics.wordpress.com/

He also just set up a Facebook page which showcases some of his non-comic related work.  Some are just doodles or practice work, but they are quite nice as well.  If you like his work and are interested in getting some commission work from him, he is very much willing to do so.  Here is the link to that: https://www.facebook.com/KPDraws/

Thanks for your time and for sticking around.  There will be more stories, thoughts, and updates to come, so stay tuned!

Dusk

So, you're moving out of your parents' place for the first time.  Maybe it's for school or you finally decided to try to go out and make it on your own.  Either way, like many things in life, there are pros and cons to an experience like this too.

Let's start with the pros:

1. You might/will learn to cook for yourself resulting in learning more about your tastes and preferences.  You will also learn how much time and preparation it takes to cook.  You will either learn to love and appreciate this or not, but it will definitely make you appreciate the effort it took for your parents and anyone else who cooks for you ever again.  It, at least for me, may also help in teaching you patience for when you go out to eat.  You begin to take into account the different preparations that need to be done for each dish and how many orders have been placed ahead of your own, and so, complain less.
2. You will learn to do laundry.  In some cases, you may ruin a few pieces of clothing along the way.  In others, you will learn what to do with certain kinds of fabrics.  You may or may not learn to love this also.  Personally, I have.  I saw it as a point in the day where I could do something just for me; I didn't have to think about anyone or anything else.  It helped to clear my mind of stressful thoughts about school and work most of the time.  Other times, it might cause a touch of tension just because it has to be done while you're focused on other work, but most of the time, it can be quite enjoyable and calming.
3. You will learn to clean.  This has its own reward whether it seems like it or not.  If you are living with roommates and you don't think you're the neatest person in the world, you might realise that you prefer things much cleaner, still, than others.  As a direct result of that, you will learn what you like to keep particularly clean, how clean, and how often you need to clean that thing or space.  It's a lot of work, but you will feel so good once you have your own space that you can keep clean to your specific preferences because seeing a place that's much cleaner than what you might have lived in previously and having it stay that way brings so much peace to your mind.
4. You will learn to shop more economically.  You will look for cheaper items that still satisfy your needs.  Finding quality in cheaper products doesn't have to be difficult, it just takes a little experimentation.
5. In connection with your shopping more economically, you may also find ways to live more environmentally friendly, if you're the type of person who worries about this, while also wishing to remain frugal.  One of the best things I have happened to stumble upon online was cheap ways to be environmentally friendly, to be honest.  I didn't know that living frugally and being more environmentally conscious could be two living styles that coincide.
6. You start to realise that you may have way more stuff than you need to live be they knick knacks, towels, electronics, what have you.  You start to notice the things that you brought with you and what you use versus what you don't.
7. You begin to appreciate everything your parents do for you even more, if you haven't begun to done so already, because you learn how much money and work goes into supporting yourself and think about how many people your parents are/were supporting on top of themselves.

Some cons to living on your own for the first time are:

1. You realise that you are forced to learn to do a bunch of things on your own and quite quickly, such as how to pay your bills, how to cook, clean, shop, do laundry.  But, it's not the end of the world.  Some of these come easier than others and you might learn to enjoy some of these things.
2. If you are living completely on your own, you have no one with whom you can share the chores.  Not always a loss depending on your cleaning style and preferences, but it does mean all of the work is yours to do alone.
3. You realise how much work and money actually goes into living on your own.
4. You may have to work more to meet your cost of living depending on where you are and your particular living style.
5. You develop your own living style and rhythm to the point where it might/will become difficult to live with someone else whether that means moving back in with your parents or living with a roommate or friend.  This can lead to relationship problems with your family, friends, or roommates because if you are not particularly confrontational or generally less vocal, you may begin to develop resentments towards people you have to live with, however temporary it may be, simply because you don't feel like you could come forward and talk about your issues with whomever it is you are sharing space.
• As a side note, this can always be worked on so that you can live with people comfortably.  It just takes a while to get used to.  Trust me.  This is something I've been worrying about lately in terms of living with Boyfriend in the future, but having seen me go through what I did with my past roommates and the two of us generally being more open with each other than with other people, we can see this working out.  He's a lot calmer about it than I am and have been, but his faith and support in everything has been incredibly helpful in making me feel better about our potential living situation.

As many cons as there are, and as much detail as I might have gone into them, living on your own truly is a great learning experience that you may or may not want to leave should you get into it for long enough.  It gives you a huge sense of independence that you don't have while living with your parents and the feeling of self-reliance can be a wonderfully rewarding one.  It is definitely worth trying or getting into when you have the means and opportunity to do so.

Hi guys!

So, as you might know, I'm in Singapore helping my boyfriend's mom move house.  Things are finally settling down, but there are still a few things left to get done.  In the down time, I've been surfing the web and reading if I'm not out exploring with Boyfriend, so I just thought I would fill you guys in on some of the books I want to have read by the end of the summer.

First, we have Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.  This is a book I have heard about, but have never read at all.  I am not very far into it at the moment, but I have to say, it is pretty interesting to be seeing so much into this character's mind.  Maybe more than most.  What I want to understand about it is why so many people seem to hate on it.  Every time I hear about it from someone either on BookTube (a sweet little corner of YouTube just for book discussions and book-related themes) or in real life, I am told that it is incredibly boring.  Why that is, I don't know.  Perhaps people are going into the book with the wrong mindset or the writing style just isn't for them.  Either way, I want to read it to see what I think of it..

Next, we have Neil Postman's Amusing Ourselves to Death.  From what I gather, this book is about how we are living passively through technology instead of thinking for ourselves.  We are provided with all this information at our fingertips and willingly choose to remain ignorant to what's going on around us to the point where Postman actually compares our world now (and when he was writing) to Brave New World, which I also have yet to read.

The third book I would like to get to is Fahrenheit 451.  This is a book I have struggled with in the past.  I got about half way through it, but just couldn't continue.  I have no clue why, but I just couldn't finish it.  I loved what I had read from it, so why I wasn't able to finish, who knows?  I have a slight feeling that it might be because Ray Bradbury's writing style is denser than my usual off-school reading material and by choosing to read it right after the end of a school term, I managed to burn myself out.  So, this summer, I'd like to actually restart and finish this book.

The last book I'd like to finish--as I've already started it at the beginning of summer--is Agatha Christie's Peril at End House.  The reason why it's so far down on my list is because, although I had already started it, I didn't take it with me to Singapore.  I found it, along with many other, books at a recycling depot and it is so old and worn that I was worried it might not be able to handle the trip.   A little tid bit of fascinating information I discovered one day while looking at the publication details of this book is that it was printed around the second World War.  I never thought that I would find a book that has seen so much before my time for free.  It's great!

I'll probably, hopefully, get through more books than just these four, but these are the four that I am most interested in finishing for the moment as I have been working on them all for a little while now and they are all quite engaging in their own rights.  And of course, you can expect a review of them, and any others, as they are being finished.

I hope you're all doing well and reading great things be they intellectual, classics, or trashy (because we all need a little down time once in a while) and having a good summer.

Until next time,
Dusk

To the writer in me:

Never stop writing.  Never.  It can be something as simple as journal reflections.  Just don't stop.

Read more.  Read everything, read anything.  It's been a while.  You've slowed down since university started.  You know it doesn't feel so great.  You need to experience new worlds, old worlds, far away worlds, every world.  Learn from the writing styles.  Learn from the content.  Learn from the experiences.  Keep reading.  Don't stop reading.

Learn to let stuff slide, but don't stop feeling.  You can't write if you don't feel.  Don't feel so much that you can't function anymore, though.  Feel the good, feel the bad, feel the nice, feel the ugly.  Tell the world what you think.  You have a voice.  You are a voice.  Be your voice.  Live your voice.  Make an impact.  Say what you feel.  The world needs more opinions, more discussions, more thoughts, more thinking.  Be one of the ones to contribute to that.  Be one of the ones who gets the ball rolling.  Start a discussion.  Add to a discussion.  This is how change happens.

Listen to yourself, not your doubt, not your anxiety, not your fear.  Listen to who you are, who you want to be.  Your doubt, anxiety, and fear are a part of you, but if you let them take over, you won't go anywhere.  You won't do anything.  You won't grow.  Push passed them.  Break out of their grasp and be free.  Be you.

See through your own eyes and through others'.  You'll have more of an opinion if you have more perspectives to look through.

Encourage the good in others.  You need to be more confident, but don't leave your friends behind.  Help them learn about themselves.  Show them what you see in them.  Encourage their talents and passions.  Don't let their spirits die in their search for success.

Love.  Keep loving.  Love the little things and the big.  Love the moment.  Love your friends.  Love nature.  Love learning.

Have hopes, but don't be overly optimistic.  It can only lead to disappointment.  Stay realistic and plan things.  Not everything, but enough.

Stay sarcastic.  You love it too much to let go.  It keeps you creative.  It keeps you clever.

Don't stop creating.  Don't stop observing.


I'm not a particularly optimistic person.  I don't share those optimistic images and words online because they often feel empty and meaningless to me.   But I do know some places where I can improve or continue to grow.  This is something I thought to write as a pick-me-up in a bad time and as general encouragement for who I am currently.  Some of us like to pretend we are tough like we can take on the world, but inside, we're just softies.  I am one of these, I'll admit, and that's okay.  I just need to find a way to make different parts of me mesh together.  It's how I work.  It's who I am.  We are all filled with contradictions.  It's how we are.  It's just something we need to remind ourselves.  In the end, we just have to learn to accept and embrace the different parts of ourselves.  This is how we will become happy and successful.

Forgive me if this does not seem linear or lacks coherence as it was written as a stream of consciousness.

Hey guys!

So, instead of a summary of today, I'm going to give you a sum up of last night since today just started.

Boyfriend and I went out to Clarke Quay which is, apparently, the nice and touristy spot in Singapore.  The prices sure reflected that, but in my opinion, it was worth it.  We walked around for a bit looking for a place to eat and eventually stopped at a bar/café type place called The Connoisseurs Concerto.  It's small, a little dark, but beautiful.  The some of the light fixtures were made to look like vinyl albums and there were paintings and prints of different musical artists up on the walls.  The service was so nice and patient.  And the food was delicious.  I ordered bourbon beef with a side of, what was supposed to be a stuffed portobello mushroom cap, but I guess our server misheard me because I ended up with an omelette with potatoes and tomatoes in it.  Still very tasty.  I have no complaints.  The beef was so soft and the flavour was incredibly rich, yet not overwhelming in the least.  It was wonderful.  Expensive, but wonderful. The atmosphere, the service, the food, all beautiful to the point where I could legitimately justify the prices.  If we had a place like this at home, I would be there every once in a while for a treat.

Now, something I didn't tell you all was that I'm not a night life person in the least.  I don't do bars, alcohol, clubs, dancing.  None of that.  But, I've gotten curious lately.  I don't know what things are really like inside bars at all.  My only experience of bars, really, is what I've seen on television.  Knowing this, Boyfriend set out to bring me to one last night.  Completely unexpected for me since, with all the moving, we've never gone out for dinner without Boyfriend's mom.  Before you take it the wrong way, that isn't a complaint at all.  It's just been somewhat expected because we've all been in these two small spaces moving things around, packing, and unpacking for the past two weeks.  When he told me what we were doing, I must say, I was pretty excited.  It was something I haven't even seen at home before.

On top of it already being out of character for me to be a part of night life and visiting a bar, I also got an alcoholic beverage.  For those who know me, this is not something one would ever expect of me.  I didn't get a wine or a beer, though.  I got a Bailey's toffee flavoured coffee.  At this point, it's been years since I've tasted alcohol not being cooked into food.  As Boyfriend put it when he tasted it,
"It tastes like alcohol."  It did, but after stirring the whipped cream into the drink and licking the spoon, you taste more of the coffee mixed in on the spoon.  The flavours, I found, complimented each other pretty well.  I'm still not much of a fan of alcohol at all, but I do have a growing fondness for coffee and I have been curious to taste what alcohol and coffee taste like together.  It was interesting to say the least.  I didn't hate it, but the final third of the drink was definitely tasting more and more of Bailey's; a taste that was getting a touch more difficult for me to handle as we finished the drink.  Again, I didn't hate it, but I did spend some time trying to analyse the taste in my mouth as it was different from the wines and beers my family has let me sip.  It's not a taste I would go out of the way for, to paraphrase Boyfriend, but it was a fascinating experience.  Now, if I go back, the next one will probably be the Irish Cream coffee.  That was always one I've been curious about.

Boyfriend, being the thoughtful guy he is, changed his order from an Oreo coffee drink to a plain coffee in case I didn't like the one I ordered.  It was so sweet of him.  Turns out, it was not a change he would ever regret.  His coffee came and when we tasted it, it was like no other.  It was literally the best plain coffee I have ever tasted.  And truly, I can say, never have I ever had plain black coffee until last night.  The closest would be a cappuccino with no added sugar.  Last night,  even I felt needed nothing to be added.  It was wonderful and somewhat sweet.  Not bitter at all like most hot brewed coffees.  I have to say, it's experiences like this that make me want to learn to make good coffees and espresso-based beverages more.

After dinner, we walked around the area which was wonderfully lit and music was playing in different sections of the space.  Although not our usual choice in music, we had a great time walking and listening to it.  It turns out, so did this one older man who was dancing to it with a younger lady.  Boyfriend and I were thoroughly enjoying seeing this man have fun.  It just goes to show that fun doesn't die with age.

After a while, we both decided that we wanted ice cream.  Me, being the type that I am, decided to go local and had a durian flavoured ice cream sandwich.  It was basically a block of durian ice cream that I got a slice of and wrapped in a bakery style slice of bread.  For those of you who don't know, Asian bakery breads are generally sweeter than something like Dempsters, so as strange as this dessert might sound, it was quite nice.  Boyfriend, being Boyfriend, doesn't like the smell of durian at all, but somehow ended up becoming curious enough to actually try my ice cream.  If I can explain his willingness to try it at all, then, his curiosity probably got the better of him like mine did with bars and night life.  He still doesn't like durian, but he can't say he hasn't tried it now.  I can't say I haven't tried durian before, but durian flavoured ice cream, I never touched until last night and it was exactly as you'd expect.  Since it's cold, though, the flavour isn't as strong.  Believe me when I say that it's much stronger than it tastes.  As it warms up a bit in your hands, it does begin to taste stronger and those around you might not appreciate your breath too much, but I don't think it's the worst thing in the world.

When we finally got home, we spent a couple of hours watching Pulp Fiction.  But what came afterwards, neither of us were prepared for.  I was going into the bathroom to fill the kettle because we still do not have faucets installed, and I found a cockroach on the floor just chilling out.  I have seen two here prior to this, but neither have I really had to deal with.  This one was IN OUR LIVING SPACE.  What was I supposed to do?!  I called Boyfriend over and that's when chaos ensued.  We spent much longer than either of us care to admit trying to kill it.  When we finally did and got it out of the space, sleep was difficult to come by.  I would go into detail on how we got rid of the cockroach, but neither of us are particularly willing to let that information out at the moment.  Something you need to know is that where I come from, bugs, including cockroaches, are not that big because of winter--which I now appreciate even more--so, this experience was truly harrowing for me.  After at least a half hour of bringing ourselves back down from this adrenaline rush, we finally decided to sleep.  And so ended a good and crazy night of firsts.

Some times, I feel insecure.
Some times, I feel inadequate.

Some times, people make me feel insecure.
Some times, people make me feel inadequate.

I've spent five years in university learning who I am, accepting who I am.  Learning what I'm good at, learning to accept it.  I've become more secure in myself because of it, but some times...some times, something seeps through.  A word here.  A comment there.  It's silly, really.  To have spent so long learning about and developing my character, creating my reality, only to let others tear it down.  To become secure in oneself should make it easier to let such things slide off one's back, but it's not so easy.

I am porous like a sponge.

I take in what I see and what I hear.  Some times, I take in things that I shouldn't.

It festers.

It grows like an infection.

It tears me apart from the inside out and I don't know how to handle it.  I crumble and I fall.  My reality--for the moment--is lost.  I don't know who I am, what I'm good at.

I've lost all that I am.

I need to gather my pieces.  Put myself back together.

                                  anew.
                        grow
                    I
             bit,
       by
Bit

I gather myself back up.  I learn.  I strengthen.

A new piece appears in my puzzle, I don't know where it goes yet.  In time, I will learn and it will fit.  It will become a part of my armour.  A weapon I can use to shield myself against those who try to tear me down and to fight back.  I just have to learn where it goes, what it does, how it can help me.

My reality will be whole again.  I will become me.

A greater,
stronger
me.

All righty, everyone, it's certainly been a while, huh?  You see, this past weekend was the weekend of the big move.  We've officially moved all of the things, big and small, from Boyfriend's mom's old apartment into her new space.  Boyfriend and I have slowly been unpacking while his mom is at work.  We are still waiting on a few things to be delivered and installed like the washer, dryer, and refrigerator, but that's not much to worry about at this point.

These last few days have been a doozy.  The night before the big move, we thought we had everything packed as Boyfriend and I were working on packing everything in the old apartment...as you might've guessed, while his mom was at work.  She would give us an assignment each day and each day we would finish up as much as we could.  For some reason, as we worked, she never had us finish a space entirely.  We'd finish most or, at least, half of a room, and she'd send us to work on another room the next day.  By the night before the initial moving date, she was looking through all of the boxes we had packed, still not sealing a single one.  By the evening, there appeared to be only minor bits and pieces left to pack to the point where I wasn't needed.  So, I took to my room and lounged around, that is, until I heard Boyfriend's exasperated exclamations just outside my door.  As it turns out, while I was relaxing and playing Pokémon SoulSilver, his mom had been repeatedly telling him that there was only one thing left to pack, only to realise immediately after, that there was another...for five hours.  I would be exasperated too.  By this point, it was very near midnight and his exclamations concerned me.  So, I went out in hopes that, despite how small the final things to pack were, I would be able to help move it along faster and to lighten his mood.  We were still somewhat jetlagged, so having woken up quite early in the morning and staying awake until midnight, and later still, when he was already exhausted was taking its toll.  We eventually got everything packed and went to bed some time after 1:00AM.

The next day, I woke up to find that, despite all the packing done the night before and having been told that all there is left to pack were the bed sheets we slept on, there were still a variety of knick knacks left to tuck away into boxes.  To my surprise, we somehow managed to pack up everything and have just about all of it delivered to the new apartment before 2:00PM despite some delays with the movers.  Upon returning to the first apartment, though, we discovered that the movers had missed a few things and we would have to find a way to bring them to the new apartment one way or another over the course of a couple of days.  We brought some things back with us on the bus and some in a taxi, but the rest had to be delivered by movers still as they were too large to bring in either bus or taxi.

Now, everything is in the new apartment and Boyfriend and I have been unpacking and shifting things around to make it more of a living space rather than a space full of boxes and undressed mattresses.  We've had to have the air conditioners and lights looked at and/or repaired and are still in the process of waiting for some lights to be delivered and installed, but it's not the worst.  I can deal with not having the few lights we are without as Boyfriend's mom seems to really love these little solar powered lanterns she bought.  What is most difficult to deal with,though, is probably the lack of doors to the bathrooms.  That's right, for the past three days, I have been living without some lights, and completely without bathroom doors...on top of that, sinks and the kitchen faucet have not been ordered and installed yet...the sinks, honestly, are not much of an issue for me right now.  I've adapted fairly well to using the faucets in the showers...which are also without doors or curtains, but the lack of bathroom doors is more difficult for me to deal with as there is always a possibility that someone may walk by or in while you are in the shower and the only space to put your clothes in the most private shower we have, is in plain view of anyone who would be in the bedroom to which that bathroom is in.  It's not so bad if you announce that you are going to shower and for whoever is around to not walk beyond a certain point in the apartment, but there is always this twinge of doubtfulness that makes you feel like someone may come your way despite what you've said.  The paranoia that comes from this is surprising.  You're living with people you trust, and yet, you feel it more difficult to trust when you realise how vulnerable of a situation you are in should someone come by and see you bathing.

I'll be honest, these past few days have been incredibly stressful and the tensions have been running high between the three of us due to sleeplessness and general physical exhaustion from moving houses, but Boyfriend has been wonderful even in the midst of all this.  He knows just what to say and when to say it.  The other day, while I was becoming frustrated trying to figure out what to place where in the kitchen, he came in and told me, "This is nice.  It's like we're moving in together and trying to figure out where to put things."  He gave me an entirely new outlook on our situation and eased the growing tension within me.  He's really wonderful.  Today, we were moving some furniture around in the common living space and it was my turn to realise how nice this feeling was.  We were discussing how we would have arranged the furniture differently from his mom's set-up and how it would work for us.  It's quite a comforting thought, really.  And since we were told one of the air conditioners wasn't working, he and I set up a spare mattress on the floor of the bedroom I'm staying in (there's no way his mom would let us share a bed.  The bed in there is only a twin anyway, we would be too cramped and warm together) and we've begun calling the space "our bedroom".  We're really hoping to be able to move out together some day soon, but with the difficult job economy and the high living expenses, it's hard to say how soon we might be able to do it.  Either way, we are both hoping and trying.  In the mean time, we're enjoying the walks we're taking together to buy food since the kitchen isn't entirely functional yet, and we're really enjoying each other's company now that things have settled down a bit more than pre-moving day.

Once all the dust has settled and things are in place, I will finally be able to tell you more about some of the things I have eaten here.  I've had a few interesting things in the past few days.  I hope I will be able to get to those soon.

Until then, take it easy and stay safe.

Dusk

Hi guys!

I only have a food update for you today as we are still packing things up to move Boyfriend's mom to a new apartment this week.  As a result, not a whole lot of interesting things going on as of late beyond what I'm eating, but that's fine.  Food's always interesting.

So, to start off, for lunch yesterday, Boyfriend and I went out for some black pepper beef and curry.  Standard sounding stuff, but very different from what I get in the west.  Both dishes are much spicier than I am used to having and not in the painful way.  For those of you in the west who may not be aware, in the east, spicy foods are incredibly flavourful on top of the hot spiciness we're used to.  It's really great.  The curry was far smoother than I was expecting and a touch too spicy for me.  I did manage to eat a good portion of it, though, and it was so tasty.

For dinner, we had hainan chicken rice which you can sort of get in the west, though it's not quite the same.  In the west, the chicken sauce is lacking in some sort of taste that it normally has here.  It's not really a taste that I can explain.  It's a subtle difference, yet it makes all the difference in the world.  The same for the rice that goes into this dish.  I'm not sure what goes into it, but it has a wonderful flavour in it that would have made me enjoy rice much more as a child (I was notorious for not liking rice).  In the west, this dish is served with plain white rice which--by comparison--is fine, but like the chicken sauce, it is lacking.  You might not think that something so small would be such a big deal, but it is.  This is not to say that the western version of it is bad, it's good in its own right, it just isn't the same.  As Boyfriend put it, it's fine, but it should have a name of its own as it very much is not the same.  A little fun fact for you all, Singapore is actually famous for this dish, so if you get a chance to come this way, definitely look for a local place to have it!

Today, during a break in packing, Boyfriend and I went out and got some ramen for lunch.  Doesn't sound interesting enough for you?  Well, let me tell you that it's not like any of that instant stuff that you get at the super market...well, maybe just a little bit like it depending on what you get.  Boyfriend's dish was more similar to the super market stuff, but definitely nicer still.  And, surprise, surprise!  Ramen isn't curly as you might think due to the instant super market ramen.  It's pretty straight, and honestly, much tastier.  What the difference is in the making of the two to make them taste so different, I may never know, but the texture and taste are both much nicer.

I got a curry pork ramen which we both thought might be too spicy for me as I'm not particularly good with spicy foods and...well, I AM in Singapore.  Luckily for me, it wasn't all that spicy after all.  It was spicy enough to be enjoyable, but it wasn't spicy enough to warrant a gulp of cold water between bites.  Unluckily for me, my body decided that I needed to cough just as I was swallowing some of the curry soup and, believe me when I tell you, curry soup travelling up your nasal passage is NOT a nice feeling.  I'm just glad that the feeling of curry soup up my nose finally passed so I could enjoy the rest of my ramen and my strawberry soda because it really would have been a shame to waste it.

On a side note, I don't know how people can eat hot things in such a hot country, but hey, each to their own.  Maybe I'll just get used to it in this month and a bit that I'm staying.  We'll see.  After all, I, apparently, already handle the sunlight better than a number of the locals.

Finally, I just thought I'd share a picture of my ramen with you all.  Yes, it really does look like the stuff on animes, and it's great.  You really should try the real deal if you get the opportunity.  You won't regret it.

Anyway, that's all I have for you now.

Until next time,

Dusk

Hi everyone,

I'm sorry I haven't updated you on my trip until now, but since we're still pretty early into it, I thought it shouldn't be too bad.

So, today is the morning of my third day in Singapore.  I arrived in the early morning of the first day, so I've only really been here for two nights.  I would say that the jet lag is bad since I did just go through a 12-hour time change, but in all honesty, I think I did pretty well.  It's probably because I couldn't sleep any longer than an hour at a time on the plane on top of the fact that I absolutely refused to sleep until the later part of the day after we landed.  I ended up taking a few hours' nap between 4:00-7:00PM which definitely went against my attempt at sullying the jet lag, but surprisingly, despite waking up at around 3:00AM the next morning, it didn't affect me much.  I definitely blame Boyfriend for the nap though.  When he's sleepy, he gives off an entirely sleepy vibe that spreads to me if I'm close by and I end up dozing off too.  Aside from that, I'm gradually waking up at more normal hours (around 5:00-5:30AM) and sleeping at more normal hours (around 10:00PM).

In terms of culture shock, I can't say that's too bad either.  There are some little things that are done differently around here that I'm not used to like hanging all of the laundry up to dry instead of select items and boiling the tap water before drinking it instead of drinking it straight from the tap, but it's not too bad.  I think my biggest shock, if any, is how much I'm hearing Mandarin being used around here by comparison to home.  I hear some at home, but more often than not, I hear Cantonese and English.  When I'm walking around with Boyfriend, I do feel a touch out of my element, but it was definitely to be expected.  I think the one thing that surprises, and entertains, me the most is the fact that the locals here stay out of the sunlight as much as humanly possibly and only walk through it when necessary.  On my first day here, Boyfriend had already reverted back to his habits from when he lived here and walked only in the shade while I walked in the sun.  It takes a little getting used to, but the sun actually feels quite nice on my skin despite how hot it is out.  So far, we've had weather averaging at around 30 degrees Celsius, and boy, did we ever feel that yesterday.  I think we felt it more yesterday because it might have been more humid while the first day wasn't quite as much, though definitely more humid and hot than I'm used to.

Today, a friend I met through Boyfriend is going to come by to help us pack and hang out a bit.  They haven't seen each other in...I'm going to say at least 5 years as that was the last time Boyfriend was back here.  I think it'll be pretty interesting meeting him for the first time, in person anyway.  I've talked to him plenty of times online prior to now (since my first year of university, actually) and we have had some conversations over Skype video chats, so I have an idea of what to expect.  He does occasionally get a touch unpredictable, but that's cool.  Keeps things interesting.

I hope we get this packing done soon, it sure does make things feel much hotter around here.  Plus, I want to wander around more and see what Boyfriend grew up with.  I did come for an adventure after all.

Well, that's all I have for you today, but I'll be back again soon.

Until next time,
Dusk