I am the map you use to find her

Recently I moved away from paper maps.  Instead I use the map in my phone.  It's funny how in this age of interconnectedness, it's more natural to see someone with a phone in their hand.  If someone has a phone in their hand, they could be reading facebook, checking messages from their friends, trying to figure out their next appointment.  If you have a map in your hand, you're a tourist.

My friend from the MBA program (SW, if I ever remember what this initial stood for.  He's the Daytona driver who got us safely through the gorge in South France) also introduced me to the wonders of GPS.  Now instead of peering at street signs, I just move the winking blue dot that is me along the black line that is the direction of where I should go.  No need to know what is right and what is left either - you can orientate the map to turn as you turn.

I kind of miss navigating by paper maps though.  There's something physical about reading a road sign and comparing it to your map to see where you are.  There's something about making the wrong turn, realising it fast enough and making a backtrack.

It's like how I get a little upset with my friends who play with their phones while they are on the train.  The landscape rushing around you is gorgeous.  You will never see it again because you are a tourist.  Yet you keep looking at this little device in your hand.

In the same way, I suppose I should take my own advice.  I should stop looking at the computer screen and the phone screen and go out and experience real life.  But the phone is useful for getting a direction to start walking in...

=======

Some other thoughts that I had was that I should start something like what I had in secondary school.  Like how Literature lessons with its hidden computers were a sign to start typing in this blog, I need a similar trigger for blogging now.  There are so many thoughts that I have in my head, and some of them need to be recorded before they disappear.

Everything you want

Since my last post I've done a bit of traveling, but I haven't done any writing. In fact, now I'm in a hotel in Amsterdam.

I've struggled long and hard about writing negative things on this blog, mostly because I believe they will pass. What is the point of dwelling on the unhappiness in your life? If it is something you truly regret, you will remember it anyway.

One of my fellow travelers on this trip said something that made a lot of sense though. There are some character defining moments, and these can be good or bad. But it is important to remember them in order to see how you have developed as a person.

It's a pity that she can say something so profound and yet be one of the bugbears of this trip.

I never realised how different my travelling style was from everyone else until this trip. Usually I have no trouble meeting various timings and requirements. I leave as soon as the sun is shining. I believe you should maximise every minute you are overseas.

These girls that I'm travelling with aren't like that. They believe everything and everyone should wait for them, and then complain about the bad experience that they had by the end of it.

Yesterday, they complained about the shuttle bus being inefficient  when the timings were clearly started and easy to meet. In fact, we missed the bus because one girl insisted that she had to make a bank payment that she was already late in making. If you are late in one thing, there is no need to make everyone late for everything else.

Because of that, everyone was cranky when they boarded the public bus, which was crowded as it was time to go home. As a result, they also think the bus is inefficient and would rather drive! They also preferred a 50 euro taxi ride to a 16 euro for 4 taxi ride!

And now I'm starving because they would rather sleep or surf the computer rather than go on time to meet the shuttle that will bring us to the farmers market to eat proper Holland food!

This is a such a sharp contrast to my trip in Manchester, which wasn't the best but I was willing to give up on some things. For one, we were on time for things, and when schedules were shifted they were shifted up. Even though all we ate was Chinese food, it was good and cheap, and we didn't hesitate to walk into good bars with great decor when we had to. We even managed an impromptu trip to Liverpool.

Now the sun is shining and gorgeous and I'm not out in it. There are more things to do here, and yet I'm not enjoying myself as much as Manchester.

My travel buddies this time do have great taste in music though.

Still, it's not what I want to be. I want to make the most of my overseas experiences. I can't live my life the way they do. This is a line I can't cross.

Uncluttering

I'm on the train from Cambridge to London on a Good Friday, and it is packed. I didn't know it was such a big thing in the UK. I'm glad I decided to get out of the house and experience this.

I'm also going to watch the Passion of Jesus play, something I've only read about in books. I suspect it well be very religious, but I had to try. Today the weather was a bit warmer, which made me eager to go out.

This random romp on the weekend was closer to what I imagined my MBA life to be, before I injured my leg. Then when I recovered, it got too cold to run around. Now the cold is lasting longer than I expected. However, I am too impatient to wait for the cold to end anymore, even if I grumble about it.

So I am going to try to travel, even if I am alone when I'm doing that. We all live our lives alone anyway, and no one can live my life for me. I'll just be careful and take care of myself.

I also wish I wrote in my blog more often. When I don't write, too many things get cluttered in my head. At least when it's written out, I can stop dwelling on it. An added bonus is that it's a record of my life.

So I will try to travel and write more.

Things I learned in Oxford

A longer post will be coming soon, but for now have a list!

Things that I discovered in Oxford:

1) Pimms are the most awesome thing ever and I should have more of them.  They have supplanted vodka for me.

2) My friend Natasha has a really awesome house/apartment

3) Every pub claims they have the best fish and chips.  I haven’t really decided which ones I like yet.

4) Oxford colleges are HUGE

5) I need to create a Cambridge itinerary as good as Natasha’s itinerary, stat

Start of my Cambridge year

This is the first time that I’ve been properly alone in Cambridge since I got here.  There’s no parents who have made arrangements to meet up tomorrow, and there’s no fellow college mates who want to lunch.

While I was busy with all these meet-ups, I actually looked forward to the moments when I would be alone.  Then, I could actually think and unwind.  I needed my own space.

Or so I thought, until I said goodbye to the fellow college mates after dinner.  Faced with the prospect of being alone in my room with no internet, I suddenly felt a sense of crushing loneliness.  For a moment, I thought I understood Voo, Ten’s friend.  I thought I understood what it was like to be alone in a foreign country.

Now, after a bath and with the radio on, I don’t think I understand Voo as much as I thought I did.  Yes, I am alone, but I am not estranged.  I know where everything is, including entertainment is if I want it.  I already have a favourite music station – Star Radio for Cambridge.  I have college mates that I am reasonably familiar with just a phone call away.  And I have already made connections, for better or for worse, with the staff of the college, and my fellow college mates, and I’m sure if I asked I would be able to get in touch with the people at the business school as well.

Right now, I have the luxury of choice.  And I intend to exercise it while I can.  After all, when everyone comes in I might not even get a moment to myself.  It might be work and projects and meals and activities and generally being occupied all hours of the day.  I might have internet!  I might be chatting with people a long distance away!  Or even close by.  One never knows.

The taxi's waiting

Now I'm all packed and on the brink of my studies in the UK.  I thought I would be more excited than this, but I suppose a full day of packing has sapped the energy from me.  I'm not excited or worried about what is coming up ahead, for there are too many small details to deal with that blots all of that out.  Instead, I am in an almost zen state.  I know the best thing I can do now is rest.

And rest I shall.  When I next write here, I shall be in the UK.  I hope to update soon!

Leaving on a jet plane

In 5 days' time, I will be in the UK.  From then on, I'll be staying for one year.

The entire process of preparing for the trip was stranger than I imagined it to be.  For someone who didn't like lists, I started making a ton of them and checked them off religiously.  I met up with all sorts of people, and found that some of my acquaintances should actually be my friends.  I realised that keeping in contact isn't that hard to do.  I have a ton of letters that I will be writing to everyone.

I also realised that packing up your life into suitcases is hard.  Even though I'm only going to be there for just 1 year, the things that I will need are quite surprising.  The decisions that I've made in what to bring - gadgets, creature comforts and all that - have been very interesting.

I expect to travel.  I've been told that I ought to visit Belgium, and I am definitely going to visit Paris.  A lot of the students want to go to Amsterdam, though I'm not quite sure what the attraction there is.  I might go to Vienna, or visit Italy again.

Or I might just take endless walks and train rides all over the place.  Rambling is a good pasttime, and Cambridge looks like a fun place to walk around.  I am sure that there will be things to do there.

Plus my family says they want to go back to Leicester to take a look at how it has changed since we've been there.  It should be exciting.

Wanting to Travel

Wow, the new structure of Blogger is pretty strange.  It looks more like Gdocs.  Guess I'll have to get used to it, since I want to post more often.

It is now 56 days away from my flight date. Originally I wanted to fly on 31 Aug, but since it's a school holiday most people were flying off on that day. So now I am flying off on the morning of the 30th. My parents are going with me, and it'll be the first holiday I am having for a very long time. I wonder how it will go? My mom and I are tossing around the idea of travelling, but even booking the plane tickets was quite an adventure. I'm not sure how much easier travelling out of the place will actually be once we get to it.

Luckily, the group I am with all seem to be great travellers. I met up with a Korean couple last night along with a few other Singaporeans. The Korean couple was here on the way from Australia, and were extending a few more nights in Singapore. They're also going to drive around Europe just before school starts. In fact, they're the ones who awoke the travel lust in me.

They're not the only ones. There's another girl who's doing a grand tour of Asia right now, and I really wish that I could do that. I even have the Krisflyer miles. Maybe I could use that to fly somewhere. Although I should probably save it for my parents' trip when they come down to visit me in December. We are hoping to go to Paris, so that should be fun.