I'm all alone on this road...

I know I haven't been blogging for months... but yup just some updates and things to give thanks for...
The time when I was stuck in Germany... was really unpredictable as everything was unplanned. It's the 1st time that I start traveling alone and I was faced with such a situation. But thinking back, I really have to thank God for such divine arrangement as it prepares me for this 1 month of traveling alone again. I was reminded of this song by Third Day- Mountain of God during the time when I was stuck. And it is just so appropriate at that time.. Faith, Trust and Hope increased and I was very encouraged by the song:) And I truly believed that God is the One who's gone before me and He will help me carry on...

"Mountain Of God"- Third Day

Thought that I was all alone

Broken and afraid

But You were there with me

Yes, You were there with me

And I didn't even know

That I had lost my way

But You were there with me

Yes, You were there with me

'Til You opened up my eyes

I never knew

That I couldn't ever make it

Without You

Even though the journey's long

And I know the road is hard

Well, the One who's gone before me

He will help me carry on

After all that I've been through

Now I realize the truth

That I must go through the valley

To stand upon the mountain of God

As I travel on the road

That You have lead me down

You are here with me

Yes, You are here with me

I have need for nothing more

Oh, now that I have found

That You are here with me

Yes, You are here with me

I confess from time to time

I lose my way

But You are always there

To bring me back again

Sometimes I think of where it is I've come from

And the things I've left behind

But of all I've had, what I possessed

Nothing can quite compare

With what's in front of me

With what's in front of me

Homesick

Here's something for us to think about...

Christians cannot compartmentalize their lives into the secular and the sacred. All truth is God's truth, and anything done for Him whether "religious" or not is sacred.

-Crosswalk-

Lapland and Stockholm Trip (29th Jan-9th Feb 2010)

As promised, I'm now going to write about my 1st exchange trip to Lapland and Sweden :)

AHhh... thats quite long ago :x It will be a long post, take your time to read :D

Ok... Here's how the journey begin...We started the trip quite badly. We are supposed to take the night train at 10:50pm to Rovaniemi, so by right, we are supposed to take the bus from our place at 9:15 BUT Su and I missed this bus and we had to take the next one, which is at 9:45. Ok... so we're thinking it's not that bad since our train is 1hr later. Sebas and Xin Ying reached the train station first and they boarded the train to put their luggage. When we reached the train station bus stop, it is 10:15pm. Sebas came to help us with our luggage while Xin Ying waited on the train. AND... here comes the "bad" part... He told us that the train actually leaves at 10:20pm! So the 3 of us carried our luggage and ran to the train station. We're running and panting so much that when we reached the platform, we saw the train LEAVING right in front of us! It was so drama, we ran after the train and Sebas almost shouted NOoooo... We had no choice but to inform the train inspector at the station and boarded the next train and poor Xin Ying was left on the 1st train ALONE.

(30 Jan 2010)

We arrived in Rovaniemi early in the morning at 9+am, met up with Xin Ying and proceed to our hostel. The hostel that we stayed in is quite nice, it is more like a cottage house and we had the whole apartment to ourselves :) We begin the first day by touring around Rovaniemi. As our hostel is quite far from the city centre and there wasn't any bus in sight, we decided to walk. This BEGINS the whole walking experience :\ So, we walked around 6km in the -20deg weather and snow to the city centre. 1st stop: We visited the James Marttini Knives Museum. We saw different types of knives used for different purposes like for cutting fish, meat, chopping wood and also the famous lynx knife used for holding boiling kettle.

2nd stop: We walked to the Arktikum, which is just beside. We waited outside to rest our legs while Sebas went in to visit the museum. Its 4pm+ and we didn't had any lunch so we proceed further to the city centre for dinner.

3rd stop: Coincidentally, we happened to see the Northern Most McDonald's!!! Ahh... so it's here! in Rovaniemi :) And we went in for dinner, the cheese burger tasted the same though.. Haha... and we also koppe ALOT of postcards! :D

4th stop: We decided to walk around still after dinner and we saw the racing event that was held there. After that, we went for grocery shopping for our next 2 days breakfast, lunch and dinner. We realised that the cab fares are quite reasonable so we took a cab back.

(31 Jan 2010)

We set off early in the morning to Santa Claus Village. How can I come Finland without visiting this place? Haha... We were all so excited but when we reached that place... but it was not that fantastic as what we imagined. There are a few cottage houses around the main santa claus house and all of these houses are souvenir shops. The only "happy/excited" part was to meet Santa. We went in, chatted with him for 10 mins, took a photo with him and he wanted us to sing him a Singaporean folk song... erm... like there are none. So he told us to come prepared next time when we visit him again. Haha... and I got my only souvenir from this place- a photo postcard that cost us 7euros each!
We went back to our hostel early, so we decided to build our 1st snow man! Haha... it's hard work... really! somewhat like building a sand castle and non of us had the experience of building a snow man. We tried a few times and different methods and alas! we finally built it up!... a rather short and cute one :)

(1 Feb 2010)
We took a bus early in the morning and crossed the border to Sweden. There wasn't any border formalities or checking of passports, we JUST CROSS, just like that!
And we took a bus ride to Kiruna, checked in the hostel and went for grocery shopping again. Kiruna is quite a small town and we decided to walk around even though that night was -30deg.

(2 Feb 2010)
We took the early morning train to Abisko. This the coldest of all places we visited! But thankfully, that week wasn't that cold :) We checked in at a dog camp hostel, which is just

opposite Abisko Ostra train station. As Abisko is much colder, we borrowed winter boots and jump suit from the hostel owner, then, we started walking and touring that place again. We walked 7km to the tourist information center and Abisko National Park in our heavy suit and boots (I think boots alone weighs 1kg!). Not to mention, in the -24deg cold :\ Finally, we reached that place, rested and had biscuits for lunch. Then, we continued on to see the Sami campsite. And, finally we walked back again to our hostel.
We had our dinner and rested. At night, we followed a group of 15 ppl out to watch the northern lights. It is best to see the lights at places where its dark and not affected by any light pollution. So, we took a 15mins walk out to the lake. We then waited patiently at the lake. Then, someone shouted "LOOK"... and we saw something... and it became stronger... finally... it formed an arc shape... it's just BEAUTIFUL! I'm not familiar with my camera's function so I tried very long and it still didn't work :( I decided to give up and to just enjoy the lights :) From an arc, it disperse out and form many small lights, all dancing in the night. Then came another round behind us and not before long, we saw many greenish yellowish lights dancing around us. Thank God for Your wonderful/beautiful/creative works! As we're going back the japs in our group shouted "aligato" and Sebas started singing "that tonight gonna be a good night, tonight gonna be a good good night..." LOL!

(3 Feb 2010)

After breakfast, we went for dog sledding. i miss dogs!!! hahaha... i really enjoy patting them, stroking them, talking to them :X Each of us had 4 dogs attached to the sled, after a brief lesson on how to dog sled, we begin our ride! Before the ride, we imagined it to be something relaxing, where we're pulled by the dogs, bringing us into the forest and the mountain alps. BUT... It turned out to be a nightmare! It was so scary! Yes! we did past through the forest, but it was an extremely rocky path filled with thickets and roots and we also sled up and down the mountain alps.. BUT at the super fast speed that my dogs are traveling, my sled overturned a few times and I was thrown out of the sled and I had to run after them. Thank GOD! I'm always thrown out into the pile of snow nearby and not on rocks or dog shit. A very tiring "ride" indeed. Everyone from the group got thrown out at least once! And luckily we opt for the 2hrs dog sled and not the 4hrs one... if not... really... almost died...
After a few hours of rest, we decided to try cross country skiing. Self taught! haha... i guess it's quite easy for me as I know how to roller blade and ice skate.. almost the same techniques involved. We went to the hill behind our hostel and practice on the ski slope. Then at night, we head out again to view the lights. This time, the germans in our group brought us up the mountain, hoping to see a better view of the lights...but.. they're wrong. There are more light pollution from the mountain and we can only see a faint view of the light. AND! I finally figured out why my camera doesn't work on the 1st night! So blur of me!!! I switch to Manual mode but I forgot to turn the side button of my dslr to MF. No wonder it doesn't allow me to take any pictures in the dark! =( Ok... now that It finally can "work" but the lights were too faint and it wasn't as nice as the 1st night.

(4 Feb 2010)
Since we have 1 extra day in Abisko and we didn't know what to do, we decided to travel more north to Narvik in Norway. We took the morning train and didn't pay for it... haha.. cause there wasn't any train inspector that morning! The train ride was nice as we passed by many mountains and rivers and tunnels. The view is just breathtaking! We arrived in Narvik one and a half hr later. It's a nice town with many houses built on mountains. We took a 2hr climb up the mountain to get a bird's eye view of the whole town. Beautiful. And on top of that, the weather is good. Although more north, it is not that cold at all!

Ahh!!!! dunno what happen to blospot! the rest that I've typed ALL DISAPPEAR! ARGH!!!

I'm too tired to write now... will write bout the rest next time :D

Counting my Blessings...

This is the 2nd day of Chinese New Year 2010, I can't believe that I actually spent my CNY abroad, without my parents, family, relatives and friends. As my parents grew up in a big family, it is hard to see all our relatives often, so to us, other than Christmas, CNY is the next big thing. It is a time of "real reunion". Being in foreign land, I really do miss the festive celebration and new year spirit.

I had my reunion dinner at 成龙饭店. It is a mini gathering held by the chinese living in Tampere. Each of us paid 4euros for the dinner, there was also live telecast from 中国电视台. Dinner was ok… but still the new year mood was really not there. This year is really quite special as my family decided to spent new year in malaysia (my mum's hometown). From what I can recall, this is the 1st time that my family never spent their new year in Singapore! So I did not have the chance to wish my parents happy CNY. This year's 初一 happens to be a Sunday as well, so my friend's roommate, Johnson invited me for the chinese service. It is held in the same church that I goes to, but their service is only once a month. As it was CNY, so we had a special service. There was praise and worship, then Johnson shared and after service, we had 汤圆 and some snacks. There was also lucky draw, and I drew one of the "BIG" prize. I got a face towel and 0.20euros wrapped in a red paper that reads 四季发财. Haha... its kind of cute that I get to receive "red packet" here too :D

Then we had steamboat dinner for the night. We prepared so much food that we had to eat the leftovers for the next day's lunch... well... 4.50 euros per person is very worth it! What more, we get to eat ABALONES and BAKKWAS! (thanks mum <3)

A year has ACTUALLY passed, and indeed, I want to count my blessings. My Father in Heaven had provided me with much, He opened opportunities for me to exchange in Finland, He gave me joy and protected me during my trip, He gave me good grades that I can glorify His name. Most importantly, He is faithful to His promise. I remembered my prayers before coming to Finland, that I don't want to leave if His presence is not with me. He heard me and He found me a church that I can be in fellowship with believers and to be close to Him. Not only do I get to attend the main service, I attended home cells, music practices and now... hearing sermons in CHINESE and 赞美之泉 songs... all these are just so familiar to me :)

I really thank Him that His presence is INDEED with me and I pray that I will continue to shine His light, to glorify His name and be a blessing to many.

14 This is the confidence we have in approaching God: that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. 15 And if we know that he hears us--whatever we ask--we know that we have what we asked of him. 1 John 5: 14-15