Friday...

Finally! I'm in Philadelphia....my first post from here....
okie...from now on, the stated day at the beginning of my blog post refers to Philly time....
and fyi, Philly time is 12hrs slower den Singapore right now....meaning for eg, 10am, Fri in Philly is 10pm, Fri in Singapore....

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yupz....
yes...finally, i'm able to update.....wanted to do so but couldn't reali get a reliable source of internet access...
alright, cutting a long story short...

Was reali touched on the day i departed for US cos of the smses, calls from frens and oso cos some frens came to see me off despite the flight being in the middle of the nite and dat many of them hav work the next dae...

Elysia called me at abt 10pm on thurs nite to send her well wishes and say goodbye....the conversation went on for abt half an hr, with alot of laughter and as alwaiz with her, a little gossip....
i was reali glad cos her sincerity couldn't be better felt den in her words...thks....i appreciate dat.... =)

Smsed with some frens after dat....and reali reali reali, i am reali very thankful for having reali nice frens who send their well wishes and genuinely hope dat i'll take care and be fine....
I hope all of us will be fine and do well in the year to come...

1 of the surprises was the sms frm Olive's sis....hahaz, i haven't even met her before although i've coached her on a maths qns on the fone before....but i guess we can can click very fast dat's y....she oso sent me a long sms...and well, i hope she'll do exceedingly well for her Olvls tis yr! Jiayou KR!

I talked to Icy at the stroke of midnight....hahaz, yah...it was arnd 12 midnight....
we talked for quite a while and yah, it was as usual, a nice chat with her....hmm, seems like she's going to hav to go thru a busy period again....take care k icy....i will too, so u don worry abt me...yah, i spared u the nagging in the previous mail but dat doesn't mean u'll be spared again =p

Okie...cutting the story short again...
I reached the airport at 4am with my family.....and i got another big surprise!
Olive was there!!! tis Olive...smsed me and everythg but nv said dat she was coming...hahaz...of cos i was happy to see her....hahaz, but poor girl, her eyes were red frm staying up all nite....
Zhiwei and Junhui were there with her and awhile later, Weiya and Meijia arrived too...
kk....here, lemme post a foto of us 6 tog....nice foto....

Checking in took quite abit of time....
and while queuing, i got ANOTHER surprise!
Weiliang called me at 4+am and i thot he was going to bid me farewell on the fone....but no....he asked which counter i was at....and yah, my WiseUtd bros were there to send me off and den later, sending Shengye off as well....
Wow...i reali was surprised....Weiliang, Xian, Hui, Kevin came....it reminded me of the time when i went to see Weiliang off with the same ppl too... =)


we all went to burger king after dat and i tried to talk to both grps of close frens along with my family...
i managed to share the time pretty well and although it was not long enuff, i had no choice....cos i had dragged the time to the limit....for as i enter the immigration gates, my name was announced for the LAST CALL...
hahaz, i quickly turned back, waved goodbye and walked reali fast to the departure gate....

I said some words to all my frens to thank them for coming and hugged my mum and my dad....
Earlier in the dae and daes before, i had repeatedly asked my mum not to worry abt me oredi...i'll take good care of myself...
i'll miss them lots of cos, but we've oredi settled on the various modes of communication....so there shldn't be any problems....

ohh yah, before finishing tis part of the post, i got a little surprise again,....tingting actually smsed me at 5.20am to bid farewell....hahaz, don get me wrong, but i was surprised cos all along, i thot she onli treated my clique as normal frens or even juz acquaintances....but her sms kinda proved me wrong....
thks....

hopefully those who received my thank you cards and extra stuff (u noe who u r =p) r happy with them....
And yes....thks Weiya for ur goodluck key chain....i reali appreciate it....it'll be used for sure =)

Happy birthdae in advance bro wei....sorry i cant celebrate with u tis yr....we'll celebrate it nxt yr!

Shiqi, u say sorry for wat...aiyo....hahaz, thks, i'll take care....u oso leh...hope u get wat u wan soon....and enjoy watching the last 2 matches of world cup!

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Moving on to the flight....it was terrible....
the initial 7hrs wasn't reali very pleasant....but the second part of the flight, 12hrs....was totally horrible!
the air quality was poor, i was super dehydrated, it was cold, my neck was aching and there was so little leg space for economy class,.....i reali felt terrible...
My nose was leaking all the time...and i couldn't fall asleep....
but well, finally managed to arrive at Philadelphia Airport unscathed....
Aniwaiz, tis is a foto taken with 2 other bv frens at Narita Airport, Tokyo...

At the second stopover point, Detroit...the customs officer said sth which make me feel like i was in a movie set...she said....
"Welcome to America! Enjoy your stay here, take care and be careful!"...
hahaz....it felt reali welcoming....i mean it....

Americans r reali quite friendy ppl frm wat i've seen so far....
On the domestic flight, tis man sitting beside me was chatting with me for a good part of the flight....friendly man...

Yah, now i'm at the lobby of a senior's apartment....i'll be staying here for the next wk at least i tink...
Plans for tmr, Sat are mainly to explore tis place first....we'll walk up to UPenn and find out where we can buy groceries, food, clothes etc...frm tis neighbourhood....
Next week, i'll probably meet the program director and drop by my company to say hi as well as go thru the orientation before i formally start work....

There r oso many other admin issues to settle....
It's alot of stuff....and i am oso socialising now and getting to noe the seniors and everyone better....
A new challenge it is indeed....but i hav tis feeling dat tis 1yr is going to be quite exciting even though i wouldn't discount the fatigue level sometimes....

Still, having a supportive family and many close frens back in Singapore is reali a very very great source of mental and emotional strength for me.....
Reali....without dat, i'd be reduced to a nobody.....cos dat's my main source of motivation and energy....

I'll start contacting everyone again gradually as i slowly settle down at the same time....
Thks to all my dear frens....missing u all oredi.....

Take care k everyone....i will too..... =)

If i had missed anyone or anythg out, sorry, cos i'm abit suffering frm jet lag...yupz...i hav all the memories deeply etched in my memory!

fRenS r An indispensAbLe pArT oF mY LifE....
mY fAmiLy too....
fAm + fRenS = Me....