Hola from Spain! Yes finally I have a little bit of time to blog about my ongoing grad trip to exciting Europe. I've just arrived in Barcelona and Spain has been such a beautiful country. I especially love the cathedrals here. So dramatic in their architecture and so rich in symbolism. Madrid and Seville were my previous two stops and we managed to soak in the sites, and I managed to gaze upon Velasquez and Goya at the Prado! So happy! Finally all the paintings from the Art and History module have come to life and I just stared in awe at these magnificent artpieces. Shall be going to the Gaudi sites tomorrow which I'm very much looking forward to and photos will come in due course. The uploading speed here is pretty slow and the photos will take some time. Amidst all the new experiences and enjoying the wonderful weather, I hope everybody is fine back home and rest assured, I've been trying to keep myself from harm's way as much as possible, well almost to the point of paranoia. Haha. The swine flu pandemic is not really publicised much here and life seems to be pretty much normal in Europe, but plenty of fluids for me still! If I don't put the photos here, just look for them in Facebook! Adios for the moment!

In less than half a day, I will be on board a flight for my grad trip to Europe! Initially, there was a possibility that the trip would be derailed due to the swine flu crisis, but luckily not many new cases have emerged and the grad trip goes ahead as planned. Yay! So to those who read my blog, I will be away from the 12th of May to the 13th of June, heading off to celebrate the end of my undergraduate life before I embark on a new phase of life. In other good news, I have a job! With MOE! Not teaching! But I was selected for the Education Policy Analyst job and I'm so relieved that my job search was relatively smooth sailing. I just await my results, which I will be checking overseas and then I will start working for the next dunno how many decades. Everybody's heading to so many places around the world and I just hope that I will enjoy myself and come back safely. Till we meet again.

This has got to be the slackest exam period I've ever had!!! Reading week has come and gone and I've spent it as if I didn't have any exams to worry about. At least I started doing work on Thursday. Actually, what I remember most about my time in NUS has got to be reading week ironically. Especially the last two years in NUS. Going back to school, cramming like mad in the library, trying to figure out what the heck we are studying, nice dinners to relax. I will really miss reading week. This time round, I haven't had the mood to get myself to study ever since I completed my SSD assignment, that is until Thursday. I've watched so much TV, helped to organise the honours class treat, got to eat at Ivins (which has really nice Peranakan fare), booked my Europe stuff, so it has been pretty exciting. But going back to school on Thursday to study was quite fun on its own, because I studied with Yien and Jared! Nobody came to disturb us, we had lunch at Munchie's and we listened to so many Youtube vids! Sorry for disturbing you guys but studying with friends really makes you want to work harder. As I finish my final two exams of my undergraduate life, I look back to all the memories I've had during Reading Week with much fondness and nostalgia.

My final day of official NUS life ended yesterday with a blast. I rushed my SSD assignment, dropped off my books at the library, handed up the report before heading off to Kbox with my geog juniors. I've never been a huge fan of Chinese pop but yesterday was a much needed day to let my hair down, sing my heart out and enjoy the company of those who have made my NUS life all the more memorable. Thanks for inviting me and some of them really can sing very well! We had zhi char at Holland V for dinner, desserts at Essential Brew and tons of random nonsense and laughs. Now I've totally no mood to study for my exams but it is times like these that I will miss the most when I leave NUS. To all my wonderful juniors, thanks for adding so much colour in my life and for the wonderful friendships we have made. For those going for FS and exchange, have a great time overseas. For those embarking on honours year, cherish the last year in NUS. For the freshies, enjoy the last few days of being one because time flies!

I dedicate this song to you guys. I remember this song from my secondary school graduation and it still remains poignant now.

周華健-朋友.mp3 -

Finally, after all the work that has been put in, I finished my HT. Never did I have so many sleepless nights, complaints and heartache just because of one assignment. But, seeing your work printing out, you can't help but wonder how did I manage to churn out nearly 100 pages worth of words and pictures. Printing costs a bomb and I haven't even finished printing all the copies I need to give away. I didn't do an all-nighter to complete the HT because I was sick and couldn't. So I rushed all I could before heading to bed, and did some more on the day itself before rushing to school and spending almost another hour just trying to sort out the printing at Central Library. After submitting the softbound version with Kit, I had to rush all the way down to MOE for my interview with the directors. Well it wasn't 5 minutes this time round and I had quite an interesting time speaking to the directors. Just when I thought I lost all hope of getting a job, this ray of hope shines on me again. I hope I hear from them soon, so that perhaps I have some semblance of job security. Now, I've totally no mood to do my essay due on Friday. I haven't started and spent most of my time playing Bejewelled on Facebook. Hahaha. But these past few months, I couldn't have done it without the help of so many friends and family. I've thanked them individually in my HT, but I don't think I've been able to thank everybody. So here's just a shoutout.

One more day to end over 3 months worth of interviewing, writing, formatting and lack of sleep. My undergraduate life has culminated to this. My last day before I hand up my thesis over for marking. Everybody seems to be getting emo about this, and thanking everybody left, right and centre. I've already done that in my acknowledgements but well, one cannot help but feel nostalgic over four years of university life. It doesn't help that I've been sneezing a lot during the Good Friday weekend, so I'm pretty much stuck at home, fine tuning my thesis while I suppose most of the hons class is becoming crazy back at school. You guys can reminisce about the days of nonsense in the Geolab or GIS Lab while I won't have those memories. Perhaps my supervisor had an ulterior motive when he asked me to submit my work earlier, so I wouldn't have to stress over too much over this weekend. And I'm thankful for that. If I had to rush mountainloads of work whilst battling a flu, that would've been memorable.

Attending Good Friday service has been a soul searching experience. Going through the stations of the cross and witnessing how much suffering that Jesus had gone through to atone for all our sins. Every station marked something I could have improved in my life, and I don't think I have been a very good Catholic lately. But, as we celebrate Easter today, we are reminded that we too can triumph over adversity. Things may not go well at times, but with perseverence and faith, anything is possible.