so it has been a whirlwind of activity since coming home. so madness is not territorial. still haven't slept that much, which was a key thing i was looking forward to on monday. most things have been nice and sufficiently familiar.
flight was terrible, landed at CDG (Paris) and there was a big screw-up. they didn't announce my connecting flight (which was actually at another terminal) - i'm so glad i speak a few sentences of french, sufficient to understand that i had to take a train and get off at the first stop. legged it there only to find a long queue at security, which wasn't moving at all. it was 25 mins to my flight. found out that everyone else also had flights in 15-30 mins, and the crowd was getting increasing nervous and impatient. a lot of shoving and shouting later, all the flights were delayed. they had closed all the security counters for the night and had not enough personnel to re-open them. the flight was uneventful except that i was quite uncomfortable and couldn't really sleep. nonetheless still glad to be back on homeground in one piece, with my luggage (i guess once you buy insurance, nothing bad happens... heh)
1/2 hour after landing, arrived at adam road hawker centre. realised i left all my $20 in the car, so had to borrow money from S. He lent me $5 which I thought made me invincible in a hawker centre. WRONG. i bought prawn mee (the cheapest at the entire store, they were mostly $8!?) and spoke what i would consider fluent mandarin. and then the uncle told me it was $5.20 because i was taking it away. i told him that's all the money i had because i just landed, and he let me off. btw i was very grateful to the clowns for going all the way to the airport to pick me up! spared the fam car hassle or an mrt ride for me.
monday came and still jet-lagged, had to wake up earlier than i normally would for work. 6.45am. got myself downstairs and saw the bus. everything came back to me in the instant i started running for the bus - it was all too familiar. and then i began to dread the train journey, which proved to be terrible. but i didn't hear the dimsum dolly song like i thought i was supposed to. got to the CPA pre-admission course early, and even had time to buy kaya toast and tea-c. collected the humongous file of notes and my stomach flipped. all the pain in accounting class came back to me, and i can't believe i signed (and paid) my holidays away to wake up at the crack of dawn and subject myself to a week of torture. nonetheless, i survive 2 days so far. and now i have the prospect of a 125-qn, 90-min exam on friday to worry about.
stood on the right of the escalator and quickly realised.
also rediscovered squatting toilets and noted that the toilet bowls were much lower.
had a haircut + wash + style for $15. had to do all 3 because a cut alone would cost have $16. i don't understand them sometimes.
by tues night, have visited both grands and met the cousin who can now speak. after much difficulty he decided to be friends again. took the mrt and bus, and realised that they now charge by the distance and it actually costs $0.00 to take the feeder bus home!!! amazing, love how affordable it is to take the buses. i thought my $10 card was depleted in a day actually and got quite worried.
back home, i'm still worrying about home in ldn. i think J's really pissed with me from the unfriendly email i got this morning which was very unlike her. i wonder what happened and now i wonder what to tell her about what's about to happen. sigh, i wish i just never opened my mouth or tried to be nice. damn right, i wish i'd stop bringing worrying situations upon myself. need to remedy this asap if not i fear the next 10 months wouldn't be pleasant. and it wouldn't really have been my fault. tho by 1st principle, I was the cause of it all and i guess could technically be considered my fault.
真 的 是 活 该！！！