Apa khabar, lama tak jumpa =)

This semester, I've taken up a few challenges: Working closely with church staff, I'm now teaching bible study at the university residence in addition to the usual Christian Fellowship bible studies. Also, I've continued on working at a local gymnastics centre for children. I'm still singing with the choir, so my week is quite fully packed with classes and extra-curricular activities. In fact, my weekend is now on Wednesday!

The new church that I had decided to settle down in has also been a great experience. Here, I've had the opportunity to interact with a wider spectrum of age groups. It's quite a change from the demography of people within my age bracket and parents of those kids which I grew up with. I've now got friends who are young married couples with no children yet, as well as young families. Very interesting indeed.

I've also moved from my old place. I now stay with an old couple who are really nice. Though the new place is a little farther from campus, I don't really mind. The environment is great, in fact, better than my old place. There's a park right outside, and lots of food joints in the surrounding area which fits the depth of my pocket. The nearest mall is just round the corner, so things are really convenient. My old place was big, but empty, which did get pretty depressing after a while. The people who frequented the place, well, let's just say we began to rub each other the wrong way. I guess moving out provided a welcome breath of fresh air.

My brother is now up in KL, having joined the Malaysian Army. He seems to quite enjoy himself there, completely dominating the sports arena. He only gets Sundays off, so sometimes I wake up a little earlier on Sunday to visit him. He likes his food, and so do I, so we go all over KL looking for good food. 

The little princess of the family... well, isn't so little now. She's done with her high school and is waiting for her results. In the meantime, she's been up to plenty of nonsense. Did I tell you about the time she won an iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle at the opening of Mac City? She called me to literally scream the news into my poor ear. She's also taken up a part-time job waiting tables. I guess that's helped her appreciate the value of hard work.

My parents on the other hand, are trying to cope with the empty nest syndrome. In fact in the last month, they've been up to KL twice already! I'm sure my mother misses having her two boys fight the house down. I sure do hope they adjust to not having us around, especially once my sister decides on where to go next and eventually leaves the house.

The only person I really miss while miles away from home is my grandma. She's 91 this year and still insists on doing housework. She still can lug a full kettle of water off the stove and carry it across the kitchen! I miss her cooking, I miss watching her slowly lumbering about, I miss seeing her at the sewing machine patching together scraps of cloth to make blankets for us, I miss the silent ticking of her ancient wind-up clock in her room, I miss the calm look she bears in spite of all the years of suffering she had gone through, I miss the rough handbag she carries to church, I miss the sound of her voice. Oh grandma =)