this is such a beautiful song... close your eyes and listen to the words. amazing how it can make me feel vulnerable and strong at the same time. the feelings are so....raw.

6:30 AM

Duration calculation results

From and including: Friday, March 14, 2008
To and including: Friday, June 13, 2008

It is 92 days from the start date to the end date, end date included
Or 3 months including the end date

Alternative time units:
92 days can be converted to one of these units:
7,948,800 seconds
132,480 minutes
2208 hours
13 weeks (rounded down)

4:16 AM

he's so talented, my gawd. =) i feel so proud of him, haha

anyway, i've been feeling rather down lately. dont know if it's because he's not around, or some other stuff is stressing me out. i guess it's the latter, considering we skype like, in the words of my neighbours, "they skype 24/7 la". i'll get over it though. soon. =)

since i'm blogging now, i think i wanna mention something random. been thinking nowadays, and i realise i'm different now from when i first came into eusoff. somehow...i'm not as friendly as i used to be. i'm still friendly, nonetheless, just...not as much. i dont seem to be as enthusiastic as meeting new people anymore, or even 'old' people. when it should be the opposite, shouldnt it? oh well, i guess i've settled well into hall life and i dont see as much excitement in trying out everything new as i did before i came in. i'm so jaded i cant stand it. yeesh.

let's hope things pick up and i feel more refreshed after my trip to cambodia come 20th may for about 3 weeks (which i see as a trip of personal development whether you believe it or not, and i'm not kidding, cos people in expedition DO go there for self-discovery other than things like maybe, playing with the kids), and my getaway to korea to visit him with his mum come 12/13th june for maybe about 8/9 days.

which reminds me, i cant place myself into the typology of tourists erik cohen theorised in my sociology of tourism class. the tutorial this afternoon made me think about what kind of tourist i really am. am i an 'organised mass tourist', 'individual mass tourist', 'explorer' or 'drifter'? i guess i hover somewhere between 'imt' and 'explorer'. possibly taking on extreme sides at times.

my family, in recent years i would say, have become idm/explorers to me, planning our itinery from scratch, well, 90% of it, even though we are travelling in somewhat an institutionalized manner. (see my earlier confusion?) i have grown to not choose packaged tours (those of the 'omt') due to common reasons most lazy adults, okay ME, have come to identity with:

- waking up at ungodly hours (8am is to me) to eat the breakfast, usually an intercontinental buffet in hotels, and usually taste superb (love the bacon, eggs and ham, cereal+milk combo), that you've paid for. it will be a shame, to me, to miss out on it

- making sure you join the rest of the aliens-who-wake-up-on-time. if you are late, you receive stares and even a couple of dirty looks from them, not good if you're sticking together for a few days on end

- sticking to unreasonable (in your opinion) time frames for attractions you actually look forward to in the scheduled tour, and because of your poor time management, miss out on some good stuff and thus regret it sorely aftermath

- being in an impossibly large group of people like yourself (like 20 perhaps) and finding you cant interact with them well, or you simply cannot stand them, due to possible irritating habits that you yourself do not possess and are unused to

- going to at least 1 attraction you dont like (in my opinion, i would very much prefer not visiting temples) and still having to pay for the entrance fee (if applicable) just because it's been lumped together with the single figure of $xxxx you paid for from your personal traveller's capital. mainly because out of 10, you probably only like 7 and have to put up with the other 3, so majority wins and no other package tour offers better than this one does

- and...........okay i think i've exhausted my personal list. a disclaimer though, these are MY concerns, but if anyone else identifies similarly with this list, erm...=)

then again, who doesnt like to sit back, relax and just pay for some stupid package tour just so you can take a break from all the planning? i would, actually, sometime, though the imt/explorer approach appeals so much more. and i have come to believe planning your own trip is so much more fun than following a tour.

well, we had a great discussion this afternoon during tutorial and it made me think, that's all. =)

that said, i cant wait to start planning on my seoul trip with him. it will be my 2nd time there, so it'll probably be easier.

and yeah...i really hope i come back with a different mentality altogether about myself. but, really, what are the chances of that happening? haha...................

time to sleep!

funniest t-shirt ever!

4:38 AM

KOREA, HERE I COMEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE =)

5:17 AM