Lord, may you water the soil here and make it suitable for people to know you closely and desire to walk in your ways, to love you passionately, to repent on their sinful ways and believe in the Good News!

Why North Carolina?

SO yeah some of you may rightly ask me why UNC. Well to tell you the truth, i never actually dreamt about studying overseas. And even some of my childhood fantasies were about either England or Europe. But it does seem like God's will that i ended up in a really sweet spot in the land of the Great Satan.

If you know me well enough, i dunt really like Big City, i like more of rural or suburban landscapes, which is why i'm enjoying UNC-Chapel Hill so much!!

That's a shot of the Chapel Hill clock tower. Tells the time from great distances and you can actually hear it's traditional and reliable bell chimes every half hour or so....enchanting. Time difference here is exactly 12 hours later than Singapore.

It's interesting that i travelled so far (almost 9000 miles ithink) yet i didn;t actually have to adjust my analog watch at all! Mind you this is the 1st time swaku John has travlled out of the Siamese and Malaysian Peninsular, yet still no need to adjust time haha...sheesh.

ANd by a blessing of God, i didn't actually suffer from jet lag or motion sickness despite an exhausting 22 hour flight and 28 hour journey from Changi to this nice place. God is amazing!

Ok here's the real deal. The real reason why i knew this was the place for me, is that when i first reached my hall Cobb and the campus, it was like a page right out of the Enid Blyton i luuurved to read as a kid! This was exactly the kind of place i had read and dreamt about! You'll see why for yourself.

Lotsa rabbits just scuffling about in bushes, abundance of fruit..and these are all happening on the walkways between classrooms (which are in separate buildings altogether)

Butterflies just fleeting here and there amidst flowers planted right outside your residence. And these are not the kucing kurak ones you see in Singapore. They are real beautiful and they make love at wild abandon.

These great pathways, just so nice to walk, and lotsa pple relaxing and playing games on them. Like everywhere got Fort canning combined with Marina South kite flying area. Real grass, not really manicured, talking trees, and this wonderful place is gonna look so different and alluring when Summer ends and Fall really begins! Yeah i'm in a seasonal country for the 1st time in my life!

Squirrels! Or a similar rodent haha. ZIliang's favourite(only?) animal!!

Really shy creatures though. You see wad imean by Enid Blyton? =)

Family friendly place too! Reminds me to always maintain that child-like innocence, blamelessness before the Lord.

These huge trees remind me of the Faraway Tree series, Moonface's house with a swing in the middle of the tree haha.

Overall i really love the greenery on campus. Indeed there may still be gardening and pruning works, but this place as a whole does not give you that preeny manicured feeling that Singapore Green City gives me sometimes. Over here it feels so real, especially with squirrels scurrying across pathways, birdsong, whispering trees, brick architecture, you could smell the antiquity over here..amazing. God really presents himself in so many amazing ways, and He is really the great Architect to have created all these wonderful things for Man to enjoy, a pity we've been booted out of the Garden of Eden. This feels almost like it haha.

Just hanging out in school, taking solo walks, having Quiet Time is already so exhilarating! I hope i've been able to share this little piece of green haven with you!

My Home for 10 months!!

SO yeah for those of you i did not get to update, I'm currently away from the little sunny quirky island of Singapore for 10 months, and i hope my absence is fondly missed haha.

I'm currently reading Political Science for a year at the University of North Carolina(UNC), US, under a new UNC-NUS Joint Degree Program that allows students to do up to 2 semesters at either university.

Nope it's not like an exchange program where i can just play like no tml and go for a pass/fail. Yeah my grades are all counted for and my books cost many bombs. Indeed i am ashamed that the 7% sales tax i'm paying for everything here might go into producing bombs to blow up little kids in areas like Afghanistan, Somalia, Sierra Leone, Pakistan and of course our dear Iraq. But nvm, that's another story for another time.

For now let me introduce you to my home for 10 months, Cobb Residence Hall of North Campus in UNC. It is a really nice newly-renovated dorm that keeps the architecture and the old flavour (UNC is one of the oldest State universities in the US). I've been told by so many locals that i lucked out to have got into Cobb, and indeed it feels like it, Hallelujah!

My room-mate is really cool and into music, guitar, singing, has a really awesome beard, mountain dude, and is real nice to me. He actually stayed in the exact same room in his freshman year last year, so this room and hall must really be very good!

That's my cosy little room above. At least that's most of my side of the room haha.

That's our quiet little corner above, where he sometime plays guitar and sings of his angst at US foreign policy. And that's where i will do most of my readings on US foreign policy and aspire to learn the lessons. Hopefully i can start to have my Quiet Time there too, just looking out the window, as i always wished i could do.

That's his side of the room. A musician he is yeah. Bob Dylan poster checked.

And that'll be my workstation haha!! Yes even toughie-looking John actually has emotions and needs photos and even a cute banana-munching monkey to kick homesickness haha!

Ok part 1 of my initial update is about done now. I'm just gonna do this in small little bite sizes due to size restraints and just to maintain your 5-minute attention! For those who have worried about me, duntcha worry cos i've settled in quite nicely and the people here are really qte warm and awesome. Whats more i have a really awesome and living God that thrives within me, somebody strong to really back me up for everything.

Do your best, God will do the rest! This has been really a great encouragement in me these few days. No more believing in luck, fortune, fate, destiny, only God!!