for keeping me safe and secure, with nice companionship of the rest of the exchange students and some others from CIS, BDI and RMS.
(:

for allowing a smooth SMUSA AGM with not even a single question to our Council. that to me, says a lot about how much our council and exco have achieved. an unspoken acknowledgement, and how God has kept us all together as one even though we'd had our squabbles. and how the school has grown and will continue to grow as Ryan lead SMUSA (: a sweet ending, with bittersweet memories. I will definitely miss my exco, esp those who have fought so closely alongside me, thankyou. t'was my last speech too, and yes no matter what purpose you have in SMU, it's not what you have in life, but who you have alongside you that truly matters.

for changing the Reims orientation day from official 27th (email sent since october) to 28th (email sent in january!) when SMUSA agm has to be on the 26th. how often does official orientation day changes? (:

for all my lovely friends (feli, liwei, nicholas, sam, elendreus, alex, matt, gladys, caleb, des, carol, claudie, bekah!) and of course my dearest dad, mum and bro to send me off at the airport until the moment i stepped into the departure hall.

for the airport lady who allowed 34kg in when the limit's 30-32kg max. it's amazing, cos I wouldnt know how to remove things off my big luggage at the airport!

for giving me an SMU friend, Candera, on the plane to Paris, transit at Dubai, when all along I thought that I'm travelling alone. She told me she almost booked the flight next day but somehow she just booked a day earlier. How often does that happen? And we'd safe flights and nice company at transit though we'd no trolleys to lug our really rock heavy backpacks! Thanks to her watching after my things and getting me to the right gates and all.

for the shuttle to Reims that finally came!

i'd to wait for 3 hours at the Paris airport for the shuttle to Reims, and I called the Easy Navette shuttle in France frantically. The lady who picked up could only speak french and i panicked cos by then Candera had left to take train and I was alone. Luckily there's another guy on the phone who could speak english and he found my register for the shuttle. I'm glad I've a working singapore line, but after the first call, I realised I only had 3% left on my phone battery! I'd to quickly charge my phone using my laptop; and at that very moment, I'm thankful that I've placed my iPhone charger in my backpack though I'd almost packed it into the big luggage. I called papa cos I was so afraid there's no shuttle and papa told me to just wait in faith, and true enough, the shuttle did come, and it was a very nice driver who helped me carry my luggage all the way to the front of CIS hostel.

the scenery on the highway to Reims was so beautiful, the vast green land and the blue sky with coniferous trees and smoke from houses' chimney now and then. I fell asleep about twice or thrice, it was a private shuttle so there's no one except for me and the driver and I could lay flat on the second row. haha. I cannot explain the feeling when I finally saw REIMS sign and the shuttle swerved smoothly into the land that I've been dreaming and preparing so much for.

the houses, the cobbled streets, the gates, doors of houses; i felt like I was in the moving pages of a storybook, dreamland storybook. (: it's an amazing feeling to be - in Reims.

for CIS hostel. Pedro, then i just knew as the reception guy when I just arrived at my temporary hostel, helped me carry my 34kg luggage up 2 levels cos my room was on the second level and I was at the block with no lift. And the moment I entered my room, I feel so blessed because it's such a cozy pretty room, the kind that I've always imagined - small, yet full of warmth when the wind is blowing hard outside. that night I met a girl from China, Violette, who showed me where the kitchen and i boiled drinking water for the night before I sleep. Am so thankful that she's an exchange student to RMS too and we set it then to go to school at 8 together with everyone else. God provides, always and everyday.

for a wonderful orientation day at Reims.

it was a rush to get to school the next morning, and I was glad I met Susana from Mexico and we went down the cafetaria together, only to see everyone there ((: met Zach from US, and the rest of the chinese girls - there are 12 of them in total! was worried there'll be no asians earlier on!

we walked 25 minutes to school, and where everyone gathered and got to know each other. there's a countless number of administrative things we'd to settle, from money matter to identity validation, but the walks from one room to another gave time to knowing our fellow exchange mates. we'd a Pommery wine cellar tour which was lovely -i've always liked wine, and all about it. and I finally got to see, touch and feel a real cellar, and tasted my first champagne! (: Got to know Barbora from Checzh and Kevan from BDI alongside champagne toasts.

for a simple yet warm dinner with almost all exchange students at the pizza place! thankyou BDI for organizing (: had a 5.50 euro huge MAYA pizza, it's ham with honey and special fromage! lovely! and getting to know each other session yet again, haha.

for an amazing first weekend in Reims.

early morning Violette brought me to Inter Marche, a supermarket 10 mins away from CIS to buy grocery! I was overjoyed from the affordable price and wide variety of things! it's about the size of any ntuc just that it's one big vast floor selling almost everything. Mummy don't have to worry cos' there're plenty of meat, vegetables, cheese, everything you name it you can almost find it, no chilli and singapore cuisines of course! am thankful Violette showed me the way there (:

explored the heart of Reims city with Violette, Barbora and Martina and it's really such a joy! We'd little cafe break at MacDonalds haha and the cappuccino's lovely! (:

the kitchen was a comedy at night! everyone were gathered there, cooking together, enjoying each other's companionship as we're all away from home and adapting to Reims!

following nights, the kitchen was always alive, we'd red, white wines, rose, a special Chezch concoction with 60% alcohol made by Martina's parents and tequilla! but none of us got drunk, and we chattered till late! (: breakfasts been nice too, with baguette plus butter and strawberry jam, cereal and mil, yoghurt, cappuccino and cafe creme, bananas, and off to school we go by foot altogether on monday! met a french american guy chris who just came to france for soccer, and another aussie guy josh who have went bagpacking trip for 4 months and he's 11 more days to go before home. interesting exchanges of experiences (:

for the opportunity to worship at Notre Dame Reims Cathedral. I was truly happy to have Barbora to go with me the first sunday here in France. It was a catholic mass, with its full procedure. But knowing His overflowing grace for me during holy communion was a moment to cherish. I will be here every sunday if there's no other christian church in Reims. thank you Lord, for Your presence.

for a safe shift to ACOBHA Residence. tuesday morning was a mad, mad packing moment! Had a shuttle to drive us to ACOBHA, and at the end we could only leave our luggage at the lobby! came to shift into room finally after class and SURPRISE! Barka, the lady in charge, told me that I'm lucky to get a fully renovated room! It's brand new, and no one has lived in the renovated room before. The kitchen wares are still in their packagings, the toilet sparkling clean. It's amazing how God cares for me, so, so much!

for being able to finally unlock my luggage! yes i think i was too frantic while packing that morning when we'd to shift, and i accidentally changed the lock on my big luggage. it was horrfying, messaged bro and it was such an assurance from him that if I just try all the numbers from 0-999 the luggage will be fine! so the first thing I did in my new room was to meddle with the lock conscientiously from 0,1, ... and I finally got it at 7 hundred plus. almost cried though, cos I cant imagine what to do if it can't be opened, and was so careful cos was afraid I'ld miss a number or two. It's these little bizzare incidents that can truly strengthen me and force me to grow.

for french lessons with french professors and all the humours in class! (: yes, and one teacher made me go to the front while she spelled out the numbers in French and I'd to write the numerals. I almost died. Apparently my class is a beginner class (about 13 people) and the rest of the exchange students are in intermediate and advanced! but there are only like 5 REAL beginners and I'm one. so the teachers love to ask me to read and all that, so classes had been pretty pressurizing at the start! but am really getting used to the pace and tones of french language now. Though i still can't believe I'd to say the word J'aime 20 times to get it right in front of everyone! -.- But in all, french is really a beautiful language!

for chinese new year! celebrated by cooking chinese dishes with exchange friends from China! and we invited Barbora and Martina from Chezch too and it's nice when they like the chinese cuisines too! i really miss mummy's dishes and soups and daddy's charkuaytiao, steamed fish and seafood galore ):

for pina co lada concert which we'd the chance to go up and sing "freedom", haha, and for a lovely crepe party "le chandelier" (: so we rushed down to the party after CNY mini little celebration! Luckily we met the guys at the bus-stop lest we may get lost to the place! T'was at someone's apartment on 4th floor, and BDI made crepes and i tried cider, love it (: I love the crepe with strawberry and little icing sugar! oh and I made a deal to make springrolls ohmy, gotta practice and perfect it by next week hopefully!

and tonight, I feel truly blessed to have this time to finally quieten down a little and count the many blessings I've had thus far. nights are pretty chilly in my room, even though there's a heater.

but i still love WINTER a lot, cos it truly lets me understand how precious warmth is.

for all that've happened, and all that's to come, everything is in God's perfect plan; and I always wonder at all the miracles He'd in my life.

i'm missing home so much right now - papa, mama and philo, especially when it's chinese new year and I've never spent this festive season away from home.

a new beginning, yet another exciting learning journey awaiting me - with faith.

for keeping me safe and secure, with nice companionship of the rest of the exchange students and some others from CIS, BDI and RMS.
(:

for allowing a smooth SMUSA AGM with not even a single question to our Council. that to me, says a lot about how much our council and exco have achieved. an unspoken acknowledgement, and how God has kept us all together as one even though we'd had our squabbles. and how the school has grown and will continue to grow as Ryan lead SMUSA (: a sweet ending, with bittersweet memories. I will definitely miss my exco, esp those who have fought so closely alongside me, thankyou. t'was my last speech too, and yes no matter what purpose you have in SMU, it's not what you have in life, but who you have alongside you that truly matters.

for changing the Reims orientation day from official 27th (email sent since october) to 28th (email sent in january!) when SMUSA agm has to be on the 26th. how often does official orientation day changes? (:

for all my lovely friends (feli, liwei, nicholas, sam, elendreus, alex, matt, gladys, caleb, des, carol, claudie, bekah!) and of course my dearest dad, mum and bro to send me off at the airport until the moment i stepped into the departure hall.

for the airport lady who allowed 34kg in when the limit's 30-32kg max. it's amazing, cos I wouldnt know how to remove things off my big luggage at the airport!

for giving me an SMU friend, Candera, on the plane to Paris, transit at Dubai, when all along I thought that I'm travelling alone. She told me she almost booked the flight next day but somehow she just booked a day earlier. How often does that happen? And we'd safe flights and nice company at transit though we'd no trolleys to lug our really rock heavy backpacks! Thanks to her watching after my things and getting me to the right gates and all.

for the shuttle to Reims that finally came!

i'd to wait for 3 hours at the Paris airport for the shuttle to Reims, and I called the Easy Navette shuttle in France frantically. The lady who picked up could only speak french and i panicked cos by then Candera had left to take train and I was alone. Luckily there's another guy on the phone who could speak english and he found my register for the shuttle. I'm glad I've a working singapore line, but after the first call, I realised I only had 3% left on my phone battery! I'd to quickly charge my phone using my laptop; and at that very moment, I'm thankful that I've placed my iPhone charger in my backpack though I'd almost packed it into the big luggage. I called papa cos I was so afraid there's no shuttle and papa told me to just wait in faith, and true enough, the shuttle did come, and it was a very nice driver who helped me carry my luggage all the way to the front of CIS hostel.

the scenery on the highway to Reims was so beautiful, the vast green land and the blue sky with coniferous trees and smoke from houses' chimney now and then. I fell asleep about twice or thrice, it was a private shuttle so there's no one except for me and the driver and I could lay flat on the second row. haha. I cannot explain the feeling when I finally saw REIMS sign and the shuttle swerved smoothly into the land that I've been dreaming and preparing so much for.

the houses, the cobbled streets, the gates, doors of houses; i felt like I was in the moving pages of a storybook, dreamland storybook. (: it's an amazing feeling to be - in Reims.

for CIS hostel. Pedro, then i just knew as the reception guy when I just arrived at my temporary hostel, helped me carry my 34kg luggage up 2 levels cos my room was on the second level and I was at the block with no lift. And the moment I entered my room, I feel so blessed because it's such a cozy pretty room, the kind that I've always imagined - small, yet full of warmth when the wind is blowing hard outside. that night I met a girl from China, Violette, who showed me where the kitchen and i boiled drinking water for the night before I sleep. Am so thankful that she's an exchange student to RMS too and we set it then to go to school at 8 together with everyone else. God provides, always and everyday.

for a wonderful orientation day at Reims.

it was a rush to get to school the next morning, and I was glad I met Susana from Mexico and we went down the cafetaria together, only to see everyone there ((: met Zach from US, and the rest of the chinese girls - there are 12 of them in total! was worried there'll be no asians earlier on!

we walked 25 minutes to school, and where everyone gathered and got to know each other. there's a countless number of administrative things we'd to settle, from money matter to identity validation, but the walks from one room to another gave time to knowing our fellow exchange mates. we'd a Pommery wine cellar tour which was lovely -i've always liked wine, and all about it. and I finally got to see, touch and feel a real cellar, and tasted my first champagne! (: Got to know Barbora from Checzh and Kevan from BDI alongside champagne toasts.

for a simple yet warm dinner with almost all exchange students at the pizza place! thankyou BDI for organizing (: had a 5.50 euro huge MAYA pizza, it's ham with honey and special fromage! lovely! and getting to know each other session yet again, haha.

for an amazing first weekend in Reims.

early morning Violette brought me to Inter Marche, a supermarket 10 mins away from CIS to buy grocery! I was overjoyed from the affordable price and wide variety of things! it's about the size of any ntuc just that it's one big vast floor selling almost everything. Mummy don't have to worry cos' there're plenty of meat, vegetables, cheese, everything you name it you can almost find it, no chilli and singapore cuisines of course! am thankful Violette showed me the way there (:

explored the heart of Reims city with Violette, Barbora and Martina and it's really such a joy! We'd little cafe break at MacDonalds haha and the cappuccino's lovely! (:

the kitchen was a comedy at night! everyone were gathered there, cooking together, enjoying each other's companionship as we're all away from home and adapting to Reims!

following nights, the kitchen was always alive, we'd red, white wines, rose, a special Chezch concoction with 60% alcohol made by Martina's parents and tequilla! but none of us got drunk, and we chattered till late! (: breakfasts been nice too, with baguette plus butter and strawberry jam, cereal and mil, yoghurt, cappuccino and cafe creme, bananas, and off to school we go by foot altogether on monday! met a french american guy chris who just came to france for soccer, and another aussie guy josh who have went bagpacking trip for 4 months and he's 11 more days to go before home. interesting exchanges of experiences (:

for the opportunity to worship at Notre Dame Reims Cathedral. I was truly happy to have Barbora to go with me the first sunday here in France. It was a catholic mass, with its full procedure. But knowing His overflowing grace for me during holy communion was a moment to cherish. I will be here every sunday if there's no other christian church in Reims. thank you Lord, for Your presence.

for a safe shift to ACOBHA Residence. tuesday morning was a mad, mad packing moment! Had a shuttle to drive us to ACOBHA, and at the end we could only leave our luggage at the lobby! came to shift into room finally after class and SURPRISE! Barka, the lady in charge, told me that I'm lucky to get a fully renovated room! It's brand new, and no one has lived in the renovated room before. The kitchen wares are still in their packagings, the toilet sparkling clean. It's amazing how God cares for me, so, so much!

for being able to finally unlock my luggage! yes i think i was too frantic while packing that morning when we'd to shift, and i accidentally changed the lock on my big luggage. it was horrfying, messaged bro and it was such an assurance from him that if I just try all the numbers from 0-999 the luggage will be fine! so the first thing I did in my new room was to meddle with the lock conscientiously from 0,1, ... and I finally got it at 7 hundred plus. almost cried though, cos I cant imagine what to do if it can't be opened, and was so careful cos was afraid I'ld miss a number or two. It's these little bizzare incidents that can truly strengthen me and force me to grow.

for french lessons with french professors and all the humours in class! (: yes, and one teacher made me go to the front while she spelled out the numbers in French and I'd to write the numerals. I almost died. Apparently my class is a beginner class (about 13 people) and the rest of the exchange students are in intermediate and advanced! but there are only like 5 REAL beginners and I'm one. so the teachers love to ask me to read and all that, so classes had been pretty pressurizing at the start! but am really getting used to the pace and tones of french language now. Though i still can't believe I'd to say the word J'aime 20 times to get it right in front of everyone! -.- But in all, french is really a beautiful language!

for chinese new year! celebrated by cooking chinese dishes with exchange friends from China! and we invited Barbora and Martina from Chezch too and it's nice when they like the chinese cuisines too! i really miss mummy's dishes and soups and daddy's charkuaytiao, steamed fish and seafood galore ):

for pina co lada concert which we'd the chance to go up and sing "freedom", haha, and for a lovely crepe party "le chandelier" (: so we rushed down to the party after CNY mini little celebration! Luckily we met the guys at the bus-stop lest we may get lost to the place! T'was at someone's apartment on 4th floor, and BDI made crepes and i tried cider, love it (: I love the crepe with strawberry and little icing sugar! oh and I made a deal to make springrolls ohmy, gotta practice and perfect it by next week hopefully!

and tonight, I feel truly blessed to have this time to finally quieten down a little and count the many blessings I've had thus far. nights are pretty chilly in my room, even though there's a heater.

but i still love WINTER a lot, cos it truly lets me understand how precious warmth is.

for all that've happened, and all that's to come, everything is in God's perfect plan; and I always wonder at all the miracles He'd in my life.

i'm missing home so much right now - papa, mama and philo, especially when it's chinese new year and I've never spent this festive season away from home.

a new beginning, yet another exciting learning journey awaiting me - with faith.