house warming

last night we had our offical house warming (flat-warming?) party. my shanghainese flatmate invited one of our closest-living schoolmates to dinner, which in itself was not a bad idea. the bad idea was not telling me about it before inviting them. it irked me that i only found out the same time the guests found out. in short - she invited them in front of the uninformed flatmate. talk about respecting your rights to the flat. (which, if you get into the economics of the thing, is more mine than anyone else's, since i pay a bigger chunk of the rent.) but anyway. it was fun. mainly because i get to hang out with people MUCH more interesting than my own flatmates. hahaha. (i'd post pictures if this weren't such a public site. sorry, personal preference.)

the food, according to the guests, was excellent. and we cooked more than enough for six people. that's the chinese for you - always an excess in food. too much is better than too little. the FFH (flatmate from hell) did not do such a bad job cooking, i think. but she did not really do an excellent job, either. (she pan-fried the mashed potatoes, for who knows what reason. it did NOT improve the taste, i should say.) the other mainland chinese flatmate (the guy) did a better job cooking. i think he's a better cook than she is. but they are BOTH messier cooks than i am. i spent most of the time cleaning up after them, because if i had left them to their own devices, the whole kitchen would look like the aftermath of hurricane katrina. not kidding.

oh, and i had to do damage control when the guy used ceasar's salad dressing on the fruit salad. (holy cow, where do these people COME FROM?!?!) but it was funny, and we all had a good laugh about it.

the guests were just super. they're all attending the same school, and they are in the same three programs we are. the dinner table was populated by two m a's, two m sc's, and two m archs. two mainland chinese, one filipino (guess who, haha), one egyptian, one belgian, and one hongkong resident who studied in the united states, so she's sort of chinese-american. three girls, three guys. a great mix, don't you think?

dinner conversation was excellent. i did not get bored out of my wits, or insane with bad english. (by that, you can tell which people dominated the conversation. harhar.) we tried to learn a little dutch, which was close to impossible, but nevertheless entertaining. having these people over for dinner just made me wish i had cooler flatmates like them. as it is now, i'm the only cool person in the flat. okay, fine, the chilean guy is pretty cool, too. haha.

at the end of dinner, the guests even helped clean up. they are just really the best. but what i appreciated most was the decent conversation they provided. not exactly deep or philosophical or intelligent. but enough to keep my brain from atrophying.

now why do i have to be stuck living with such small-minded people?

oh, right. because they're chinese.

*sigh*

just checking in

yes, i'm still alive, and i have not been arrested, deported, harassed, kidnapped, blown up, run over, or incapacitated in any way. i still have ten fingers to type blog entries. hurrah hurrah.

within two days of my arrival in london, i have made phone calls from the trademark red telephone booths, and ridden on the trademark double-deck buses. (see photo.) it's been pretty crazy, but i guess not as crazy as it could have been. maybe. my two biggest blog fans know what has transpired during the days-of-no-internet-access. *shudder* for everyone else, let me just make a list of the program highlights...

1. arrived in london, went to flat which i am sharing with new schoolmates, signed contract. started moving in the succeeding week, in bits and pieces. mom went crazy with the grocery shoping. had to rein her in more than once.
2. mommy-sat (the adult equivalent of baby-sat) for over two weeks. some days she's ok, some days she just really drives me up the wall. (i should say, my mother tolerance has gone up a few nothces since the last time i was exposed to her 24/7. my older sister, on the other hand, has gone to virtually zero-tolerance for the mother, due to constant non-interaction with said specimen. tsk tsk.)
3. met up with older sister and bro-in-law. they saw flat, they hate flat, they make me find new flat.
4. spent half a week (and close to 20 sterling pounds worth of phone calls) finding better flat. no such thing exists. (well, it does, but it also comes with a hefty price tag. durr.) resigned to living in sister-declared icky flat.
5. brought mother to airport, where constant my surveillance and assistance were still much needed. sometimes i wonder who really is the adult in this relationship. (my older sister was more worried about my mother getting around london for two weeks, than she is of me living in london for twelve months.)
6. met up with classmates and schoolmates, travelled over the thames river to hear british architect sir norman foster (of recent "gherkin" fame) speak, only to find out the program sheet had the wrong venue. just wasted time and transportation money to hang around with classmates. not too bad.

school registration is on monday, and i suppose i will be really busy after that. but rest assured, you will hear from me again. to gripe about my indescribably inept flatmates. all of them in general, and one of them in particular. the one who keeps asking about the internet access for the flat, but is actually supposed to be the one working on it. i shall say no more.

for now.

in transit

i am at the airport lounge, waiting for my 13-hour flight to london heathrow. i have one hour to burn. how does it feel to be one plane ride away from a new life? i dunno. my shoulders still hurt from lugging a 10kg backpack all the way from manila. (hey, it was either that or paying $35 PER KILO of excess baggage. seven of which i was able to unload prior to my departure. my checked luggage weighs 30kg, on the dot. *applause appluase*)

my paranoid father called right after i landed and got a signal on my mobile. talked to him throughout my airport security check - can you believe that?!?! the only time he hung up was when i have to put the phone through the x-ray machine. and then, he had to follow it up with an sms message. i don't know if it's separation anxiety or something else.

now a stranger interrupts and asks that i help him send email. fongi to the rescue!!! saving the world before bedtime. right. will check in from the foggy city once i get internet access. until then... just read the archives.

sentimental

in less than seventy hours, i will be on a plane that will first take me to hongkong, and from there, i will fly to london.

it's so weird to finally leave home.

last night, my church friends (and my sister!) arranged for a surprise going-away party. i guess i was so strung-out or otherwise distracted, that i didn't even see it coming. when normally i would have smelled something like that a mile away. to think, there were a couple of slip-ups already. haha. i guess i didn't quite expect people to make a big deal out of it. but it made me happy, and i really appreciated all the effort they put into it. the funny thing is, i just sat there pretty dazed the whole time. just listened to everyone else talk while grabbing a few bites. there was a live act at the restaurant, and the singer asked if there's any special occasion for the night... or course, the boys yelled that it's my going-away party. there was the standard-issue "any requests?" line, which was more or less brushed aside. but the band proceeded to play "leaving on a jet plane" - supposedly for me. which just cemented its status as my current theme song. the chorus of that song has been brought up three times in the past month - in telephone conversations, sms messages, and side remarks. and yes, i've played it in my head a couple of times.

being dazed, i didn't get all sentimental and weepy during the party. and i didn't shed a tear throughout the night, while spending one last sleepover with some friends. even when they gave me the scrapbook they made, or when we browsed through it. i didn't read the notes yet, though. i wanted to save those for later.

so we stayed up until 3:30am, talking about everything and nothing. i got around three hours of sleep, which made me wonder why on earth i agreed to stay up so late. i was sleepy all throughout sunday worship service. thank goodness the unearthly hours didn't affect my voice, as i had to sing in the choir today. everything was going ok, until towards the end of the service. the worship leader announced to the whole congregation that i was leaving the country. then i started getting teary-eyed. fortunately, i stopped myself in time. what a mess i would have looked if i did start crying. in front of everyone. ugh.

but of course, my friend noticed. before i left, she mentioned it. and the floodgates were opened... i couldn't stop myself from crying. i can say that the lack of sleep has caused serotonin imbalance in my brain, making me a tad more melancholy. (like you'd buy that.) it's probably all the hugs and the goodbyes. and the realization that it's my last day at my church of almost ten years.

earlier this evening i read the notes in my scrapbook. and the tears just made their way from my eyes to my cheeks. (i swear, i had nothing to do with it.)

i never thought i'd cry when i leave. but i guess people and things have come to mean a lot more to me... i think it would be sadder if i had left without shedding a tear. because it would mean that after 26 years, i don't have anything i care enough about in the place i call home.

new template!!!

hihi, i am so happy about my new blog layout. and it only took all of 30minutes to set up. for those who do not know, the background image is that of the british museum in london... a portent of things to come, yes?

at least something was able to get me out of my funk this morning. see sideblog.

still need to tweak a few things on the sidebar, and the fonts. but i'm pretty happy with how it looks now. =) well, that's a first. a smiley on my post. (i don't usually put emoticons when i write. only on comments, if you've noticed.)

*interrupted by phone conversation with father*

&^%$#@! i'm leaving on wednesday!!! and i thought my flight was on thursday!!! &^%$#@! this is what happens when you have CONTROL FREAKS for parents. you don't even know your own schedule. *sigh* i'm SO glad that i'm working ahead of schedule. (as ahead of schedule as one can get a week before they fly.) at least my freelance project is already close to done. will meet the contractor later to iron-out kinks, then i'm outta there. oooh... time to collect. hahaha.

the flat situation has not yet been resolved, but the flatmate issue is pretty much under wraps. i have two or three flatmates. (depending on how big a flat we can get.) will be arranging appointments with letting agents today and tomorrow. i can almost smell the london fog. aaaaaaaaah...

okay, time to grab some grub and get a move on.