朋友

One of the happiest times on exchange have been when people come to visit, or when I meet up with friends. The feeling of familiarity and trust especially in someplace pretty foreign just beats anything else in that moment!

1. Carol

Met Carol 表姐 in my first week here and had a first proper meal at Burger & Lobster. We rarely meet throughout the year, only during CNY but I still appreciated the chance to meet in London. Had a lot of thoughts on kinship, mostly on how it’s such a strong binding force despite how different people may be. Carol says London is an amazing place, but we’ve got to have a lot of money to live in London. It’s not the first time I’m hearing this, but all I’ve got to say for now is – indeed.

2. CAPT people

Felt so so excited to be able to meet up with them. They came one week after I left Singapore, and that period of exchange was still the physically settling in bit – I remember the first week was just trying to find my way around plus buying pots and pans and bedding stuff and all and orientation talks, then boom the CAPT people came on Friday!

I remember waiting at Borough station for Elvis and Vanessa and they didn’t turn up at the pre-arranged timing and I felt so worried and kept thinking if anything could’ve happened on their way here and kept praying that they’d arrive safely. They did – half an hour later, thankfully! Turns out that they arrived early and thought they were late (forgot to take into account the time difference) but decided to walk around for a bit. So relieved for that and happy to see them :) Was also very happy to meet Zhi Hao who arrived second and finally to receive Daniel and Bryan, before zooming off to see the Harry Potter Studios.

Enjoyed hosting them a lot and enjoyed their company, but on hindsight I hoped I had helped to make their experience in London a more worthwhile one! Wanted to show them Borough Market but it was closed and that left me feeling quite bummed out. They didn’t get to eat the good eats in London too – recently I’m beginning to realize and acknowledge that there is plenty of good food in London. It’s funny though, because while you can find good international food in London – Jap, Korean, Chinese, Indian, Italian, etc… it isn’t very very known for good English food. If anything though, we got to know each other slightly better through this first stop spent in London! The other trips only got better (:

3. Ying Jie

The photo with her isn’t with me but I appreciated her company and her visit. We watched Les Mis together, it was great and I was happy to be able to share such a good musical experience with her. Cooked for us both and I enjoyed that simple meal too. Had belachan kang kong nd Nasi Goreng at Rasa Sayang in Chinatown which serves Singapore/Malaysian food and thumbs up for that. The kang kong was so good.

I appreciated the time we spent together and having her over felt very much like a sleepover! Glad we could share with each other our exchange experiences too.

4. Shin

Our plans for Brownsea island didn’t go through, but glad to have spent time with her exploring another area of London – Brick Lane! And having one of the best English fry-ups around, for just 5+ pounds.

But beyond that, there’s so much to learn from Shin, as always. Learnt a bit more about living well from her. Enjoyed the conversations, her perspectives and hearing her experiences in London (:

Thankful for friends in London.

5. YK

Haha having the chance to coordinate a birthday surprise for a friend in London was great! It felt like how birthdays are celebrated in CAPT – I’ve missed doing that for a while and it was great to be able to do something for a friend!

I’m also thankful for the conversations and for keeping in touch in London. Again, thankful for friends in London.

6. Rachel Kam

Again, no photo of us both but this is what we had for dinner – ramen with a really rich broth. I’m not very good at describing food but… just know that it was a great meal haha.

Caught up with Rachel and it’s great to see how steady/calm she is now. It’s great to hear of how she has grown in faith in Christ. We shared our experiences and found out that we share pretty similar experiences – the most challenging parts of our experiences have been settling in, and the most blessed parts of our experiences have been appreciating God’s hand in our lives while we’re away from home. Can’t be more thankful to be able to continue fellowshipping with one another even while overseas.

7. Kai Lin

Kai Lin’s in London for a stopover and I got the opportunity to meet up with her just yesterday! So happy to see her and couldn’t believe that we’re in London together. I appreciate how friendship extends beyond Singapore shores. We shared a good lunch together and ice-cream too and walked around London. While the places we walked to are not new to me, they were new to Kai Lin and I enjoyed the walking and having the company of a friend who was basking in wonder while taking in all the new sights.

All the pictures we got together are with her, but at least I got this-

Screenshot of our birthday video to Dori! Hahaha. I will miss her!