Innerpeace

I'm lovin' it!

Wanted to type this last night when I got home but that was about 3.30am and I decided I should go to bed. Just wanted to say that I realised I'm really loving my SEP here in Eindhoven. Think I have been too caught up with mugging, planning for holiday travels, managing my expenses etc. that I forgot to think about what I've been doing here everyday so far. And it took a jessica-awake-at-3.30am to realise that I love my life here. Eindhoven is not as beautiful as Paris and shopping and food is not as good as London's, but I know that the cost of living here is definitely lower than that in Italy, and I can't ask for a more chill-out city than Eindhoven. I love having my own form of transport here, which is my 2nd-hand bike that I spray-painted purple. There is no way I can survive walking to school for more than 4 months and buses here are too freaking expensive so everyone cycles. Love it, cos it's like having a car in Singapore, but without the traffic jams, ERP, petrol and oh, perhaps the only drawback is that it makes my thighs even bigger than it is now, from all the cycling everyday.

I like TU/e too, for the free printing on campus, for their yummy 0.44 euro cents soup, for decent lecturers who can teach (at least better than Prata Roy) and also for their sports centre which offers so many activities. I should also mention their system of students registering for the courses on their own, no bidding, no fighting, whatever course that you want to take (except for over popular ones like Dutch for beginners), you just go online to register for the module and go for class. And we only have to register for exams one week before the exam week. So like recently, Jordan and Cyrus dropped a module which they couldn't cope with. They don't lose anything, no points, they only need to unregister themselves, which just involves a click of the mouse. Ok you all might not see what's so good about their system, but it's like we students are in total control of what we want to do, the lecturers and school really don't matter.

Ok there's just too many things here that I'm very happy about, including my room, housemates and especially the company of Singaporeans over here. That day I was just reasoning out to Tian, why I've got the perfect room in this apartment of 8 rooms. Plus the size, the facilities in my room and apartment, my very comfy quilt + bed and internet access. Couldn't ask for more. My house-mates, all rather neat guys with much experience of living on their own so they clean, cook and they're so friendly. We all can talk easily, the guys like to drink together over a game of Risk, and I get to practise my Mandarin here too! And at home I can learn to cook Chinese dishes from Bo Liu (he cooks for himself everyday and I think he can cook anything and everything!) and at J&C's I can learn Italian dishes from Sonia! Irritating thing is that they make it look so easy. So my stomach is really pampered here, simple home-cooked Chinese food when we make dinner for ourselves, and almost once a week, a fantastic Italian dish by Sonia. I'm eating food that I sometimes pay more than S$15 for at restaurants back home. I always think of Tian when I'm enjoying Sonia's food. Because he loves food as much as I do and he frequents all sorts of restaurants so he knows good food and I know he'll enjoy Sonia's cooking very much. Sonia is a girl who's too good to be true. She's multi-talented and she's so good-natured and kind. Jordan said he couldn't ask for a better house-mate than Sonia.

Ok this post is getting too long and I should really be studying because my exam is tomorrow! haha now why am I blogging. The main point is, I'm experiencing life and doing things here that I'll never get to do in Singapore. It's not that I can't do it there, it's just that I don't. I don't cycle in Spore, I don't learn to cook in Spore, I don't do my own dishes or laundry, I don't change my own light bulbs, I don't travel to other European countries by bus as if they're just next door and I definitely don't study together with friends at someone's house till 3am 2 days before an exam (I think Chiew and Tryph do that:)). Also here, a short break from studying involves a 45-min game of Texas Hold'em. Haha you should see the speed at which Cyrus cleared his notes from the table to make space for poker. Oh Matthew bought the poker set for only 5 euros here, as a birthday gift to Jordan. haha. And from then on, they have been playing almost everyday.

I am very lucky and blessed, and I'm so thankful, especially thankful to my mum who made this SEP possible for me. I'm not the daughter who'll hug or kiss her to show her how much I appreciate everything that she has done for me, but I think she knows, I hope she does. You know the day I left for Netherlands, I started crying again on the plane because I thought I was crazy to go on SEP and I was just wasting my mum's hard-earned money. So I left for SEP without knowing exactly what to expect, and even started regretting on the plane, but I'm thankful that everything turned out just wonderful. =)