Sri Lanka

Hello all,

I just got back from a week away in Sri Lanka! I meant to post yesterday but was just too darn tired to do so. Sri Lanka is the tear-drop island off of India in the Indian Ocean, in case you don't know. It's independent, though it has some political alliance of sorts to India.

A major highlight of the trip was going to tea country. Sri Lanka is famous for Ceylon tea, and tea plantations make up 10% of the landmass. We stayed in this amazing hotel called Heritage Tea Factory, that had actually been a tea factory in the past. To differentiate between the original building and the modern supports, different colours were used. Red was modern, and green was original. They actually ran the machinery in the evening for atmospheric purposes, which was fascinating. That night we had dinner in a train car, which was amazing. However, it was six courses of delicious food- by the end we all thought we were going to explore.

Another interesting activity was going on safari. Technically, safaris. On safari we saw various animals such as water buffaloes, elephants, peafowl (so many of them), birds and bugs. The evening safari was easier to deal with than the early-morning one the next day. I kept falling asleep during the morning one- it was far too hot to bother staying awake! Oh well.

I can't say if it is the best part of the trip, but one of the most enjoyable things I did was go swimming in the Indian Ocean. We stayed at a nice beach resort so naturally I splashed around in the waves for a while. The waves were really strong and I worried that my bikini was going to wash away. All and all, the beach was pretty clean.

Sri Lankan food is easily the most boring I've ever had, at least after a week of it. The rice isn't as good as East Asian rice (though remember I'm extremely bias). Then most of the food is some form of curry. Curry chicken. Curry beef. Curry veggies. Curry something else. SO MUCH CURRY!
At least the poppers were good. Poppers are these sort of pancake things made in a special pan that are really thing, except for the middle part of the "bowl" which is thick and pancake-like. Those went with sambal, spicy veggie based stuff.

Sri Lanka was a really beautiful country. Even though we were in the van a lot (with our awesome driver Maharoof who did not drive us off a cliff), it was a great trip.

Getting Lost

This post was written yesterday, but I forgot to post it. Here it is!

Today I did a fair bit of site seeing around Singapore. Not intentionally in the slightest, of course. My friend's birthday party was today, at it started at 5pm. However, I am writing the start of this post at 5:50, on the MRT, dead late and highly irritated. 

It started out that I forgot his birthday present, which isn't good. However I should have just told him that I was going to give it to him on Monday. Instead I took a taxi home, picked up the present, and attempted to take a taxi to the right place. But I didn't know exactly where I was going, and I ended up in the NTU west campus. After a nice panic and general irritation, I got on a bus and found myself at Pioneer station. So now I'm sitting here with 2 more stops to go, hoping I'll get there eventually.  

Things I've learned today:

1. Never go home for a birthday present

2. Never assume the taxi driver knows about what you're talking about, or where you're going. 

3. There are definitely places in Singapore that I am unfamiliar with

4. Being lost sucks

Next Chapter

There are things everyone has to go through- it's part of growing up. Breaking up with someone you've been dating for a long time is one of those complicated things. It may have happened two days ago, but it doesn't feel like it. It sort of feels like time has sped up and slowed down at the same time. It hurts, but it doesn't hurt at the same time.

Though it's hard to close that chapter of my life, the next chapter looks pretty interesting. There's not much time left for the Seniors anymore, which means potential turmoil and drama. It sort of feels like I'm entering a new playing field. I think I know the rules, but I don't mind breaking them. I'm trying to win, but I don't want anyone to get hurt too badly. At this point, life is for fun. There's no purpose to looking back and trying to rewrite the past. We can only accept it, turn the page, and keep writing our stories.

In regards to playing games, this year's prom theme is "Casino Royale", ironically enough. I don't know if this involves James Bond sorts of things, but I hope it does. Nothing is more dangerous than games, women and guns, after all XP

So even though this was a personal post, I think it says a lot about what being a teenager is like these days. Sure, the issue of breakups is timeless. However, with social media (that's so heavily used by kids at my school), there's no break from the questions. There's no break from anything here. Living in Singapore feels like everyone is a teen. You've just got to move forward.