Peanut Butter

Yesterday we had 汤圆! :D Super exciting. Mom said we might not have enough, so the following night I dreamed that to solve this problem, she simply cut each in half after cooking, so there were more pieces. My logic is make senses.

Also, I am having so much trouble packing up... The most I can do as of now is make a list and check it twice, and take out the shower flippyfloppys. Beyond that my mind just kind of goes 'NOOOOOO NEVARRRRRRR' and I am caught at a standstill, kind of strobe-like style though.

For future records

I had a dream that I was a yellow-orange origami pterodactyl. I had an olive-green origami pterodactyl friend, and we were seeking the friendship of a red origami pterodactyl, because he/she was much wiser in the ways of origami pterodactyl-ing, and we were leik teh n00bs LOLZ. However, I was soon crushed by a falling boulder the size of a mountain as I fled from a t-rex, and subsequently morphed into a triceratops. Does anybody remember the dinosaurs tv show? Freaky thing... Yea so I lived with a triceratops equivalent of that family underground, in something like a hobbit hole (complete with many rooms and furniture and a fireplace), and I kept fearing for the safety of the baby, because I thought the velociraptors were going to come and attack. And sometime midway through the dream, I realized I didn't know how to use my dinosaur legs, b/c I kept tripping and falling over myself. :/

Some things that I read

A devo from Purpose Driven Life that I read recently ~ God's timing is so perfect :)

Gracious Uncertainty by Jon Walker

"I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3 (NIV) This guest devotional is from Jon Walker, author of "Growing with Purpose." When my oldest son first started playing baseball, he was still relatively young and not used to a life lived around clocks and calendars. So it wasn't uncommon for him to ask, "Is my game today?" "How many days until Saturday?" Jesus says this childlike nature is necessary to enter the kingdom of heaven. My son wasn't questioning if something would happen; it was a given that it would. Instead, he was dependent upon my wife or me to tell him when it would happen. Oswald Chambers, in My Utmost for His Highest, writes "The nature of the spiritual life is that we are certain in our uncertainty." He describes this as "gracious uncertainty," where "we are uncertain of the next step, but we are certain of God." I would add we can be certain of God's grace while being graciously uncertain of the future details of our lives. With gracious uncertainty, we can be confident in our expectations, knowing our hope in the Lord will not disappoint (Romans 5:5). With gracious uncertainty, we can release the things we have no responsibility for, yet worry about anyway. My son can be certain I will get him to the ball game, but he need not be concerned about the gas required, the directions there, or even to drive. He can just enjoy being a child and simply live in each moment, trusting I've got a handle on the details and I'll let him know when it's time to go. If only we all had such faith, no longer requiring God to submit to our clocks and calendars. Our objective-in-Jesus is to grow confident each day that our heavenly Father will come through at just the right time in just the right way.

Psalm 121 ~ also something that I read recently, which also happened to be the passage of our sermon yesterday ~

I lift up my eyes to the hills—
where does my help come from?
My help comes from the LORD,
the Maker of heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot slip—
he who watches over you will not slumber;
Indeed, he who watches over Israel
will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD watches over you—
the LORD is your shade at your right hand;
The sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life;
The LORD will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.

One More Week

Exactly! Well, less than technically, because my flight is at 8am next Monday.

Time has definitely flown by. Why does time fly anyway? Where does that come from? Why couldn't it have been 'time zaps' or  something, because zapping is surely faster than flying. More stuff to research into while procrastinating! Just kidding, there will be no procrastinating. Other than this.

As a quick update to my last real update (although I am still quite sad that viennetta is no longer produced in the states), Anna and Nia came to visit last weekend! We had fun exploring the whole of London and throwing things on the ground and eating everywhere. Everywhere. Pictures will hopefully be uploaded after this week.

I just finished one final! Yaaay!!!! 2 more to go, to be completed by Wednesday.. and 2 more essays, one more pset. Baahh craziness! But not unwarranted, since I've really brought them upon myself (the papers anyway)

There's a lot that I would have still liked to do - to go to these places, see those sites, try this out and that out, etc etc.. granted, I haven't left just yet, but I don't foresee myself completing that list of wish-I-could-do's in the next week. All said, I don't think that those will be regrets, just a faint kind of 'oh, that would have been nice'. We shall see...

My brother sent me a flat Gabriel and I'll be making some last tourist rounds with him - a small taste of home as I look forward to going! Can't wait lah!!! XD To see family again, friends from home, and also for wonderful home cooking :)

All that stands in my way are those darned papers really... and packing, of course. I actually find packing fun, and slightly stress relieving. Just slightly, because as much as it's an intensive cleaning and organizing ritual, it's also generally combined with the travel, and all the fun and hectiness that entails. 

Wow, the entire lab room just burst into spontaneous laughter. I feel so left out :( I believe they're all laughing at some machine vision inside joke. That's why it's so full in here..

ALMOST THERE!!!1!!1!11!1!!11one

Viennetta

Why don't they make these in the states anymore? That is such a shame. SUCH A SHAME.








Why would you not sell this? It was one of their best. I remember eating it with my family when I was <10, and then one day, they were no more. Sad sad sad.

It's too late to be eating anything really, but I'm arbitrarily declaring that it's never too late for a slice of Viennetta. Indeed, one slice is not enough.

If only each slice were equal to a page of completed essay... mmmmmm

Happy

Ahh, the blessings of family :) I'm thankful for many many things this weekend, and that is one of the highest ones... A happy late Thanksgiving to everyone!!! Although each day is a day of thanks :)

I haven't updated in a suuuper long time - doh! Nuts. Mmmmm I had a really good hazelnut and peanut donut the other day from Tesco :) but really, so sorry to those who have been expecting to hear more from here! D: I cannot make up for it, but will try my best to post more!

As an attempt at a thoroughish update... pictures are now being posted to Picasa from my trip to Europe! Europe mainland, I mean. There's so much to write about that, haha, but those pictures will have to do for now... Schoolwork has definitely picked up a lot, and I've been madly reading and writing and coding and trying to read and write and, well, not really speak, Hebrew. Academic life at UCL is more challenging than academic life at Wellesley - I forget if I've already written about that - it's a lot less guided learning and a lot more "hey welcome to _____ your exam/essay is in 2.5 months have fun good luck" kind of thing, with sporadic assignments (courseworks) spattered between. I quite like that :) Although I do prefer Wellesley's taking care of us much more... Also, there's no good study space here. It's all so crowded wherever I go... I need better places to look maybe, or better times to try :/ I went to retreat this past weekend with the small group fellowship that I've settled with - ahhh it was a wonderful time :) I am reminded again and again of God's faithfulness in everything man, everything, and of His totally awe-some-ness that I dunno how to put into words - His love, His mercy, His wisdom, His sovereignty, His above-all of above-all... WOW it's flooring. Is that a word? He really puts "awe-filled" and "awesome" to a new level, or probably more so, to the one it belongs in.

In other news, our little Wellesley contingent and my flatmates are having a makeshift Thanksgiving dinner tomorrow! It's going to be a crazy fest with a mix of Asian and American and Britishish food, SO PUMPED YAAAAAY!!!! *dances around in flippy floppys!* I just put the bird into the fridge for an overnight brining :) Side note, the bird is chicken and not turkey... the turkeys were all too big to fit into our fridge. HAH! This will be my first ever attempt at roasting a whole chicken! We'll see how that goes tomorrow. I'm slightly afraid that it will blow up. Or shrivel up. Or burn up. Or something to those effects. What a great opportunity though... Thanksgiving! :) Also, I'm slowly picking up a Singaporean accent.. Just now walking back from small group I caught myself talking with the intonations that they speak with, and even after retreat I really had to try hard and stop myself from being a poser and blurting out 'lah's and 'meh's and 'loh's and etc in my sentences..

Mmm one more story of typical Lulu to end this post with (wow what bad English!! One would think that living in England would not result in this). Earlier today I was running from the kitchen (no, nothing blew up) but I rounded a corner too soon and ran into it. And subsequently fell into a heap. And of course, had a great laugh about it. With tears though, of remorse and of hunger (good thing there were snacks at OCF, and Sam's delicious blueberry crumb bars AHHH I ate too many for my own good). I was actually quite amazed at how much running into an inanimate object could hurt! Because it's definitely not the first time that's happened... I would say though that it was a pretty good example of poor proprioception, as in my rush to get to the front door I somehow forgot that my body was a bit wider than just my eye-span. So the moral of this story is to manage one's time better so that one does not rush to leave. Also, wear shoulder pads. You never know when they'll come in handy...

Long legs are good for walking.

Have not posted in a while...

Things have been busy over yonder - psets add up and I can't pretend like I have nothing to do anymore :P I'm witnessing the effects of burial by work right now... And indeed, struggling to self-learn Matlab, still! Academically, I can't say UCL is overwhelmingly harder than Wellesley (minus Matlab) - in fact I really enjoy learning here (even Matlab)! I can't say these are classes I wouldn't be able to find at home either, but the experience itself is different... it definitely takes much more independence. No more hand holding or spoon feeding, not that Wellesley did that either... just comparatively, it feels like it. Also, there's no good place to study! Every study space here is CRAMPED. Unless you come at the absurd hours of the morning or evening... Or maybe I'm just looking in the wrong places.

I've finally settled on a church too - HTB, megachurch of megachurches (ok maybe not that mega). I'm going to a small group slightly related to UCL too, and have finally felt at peace about settling at these places... PTL :) It's comforting to know that there is indeed family everywhere. That said, I miss the family and fellowship back at Minn and Wells sorely... actually sorely. Yesterday I had a bout of extreme homesickness - even knowing full well that people are busy, even knowing exactly what they may be busy with, doesn't quite cover the ache of wanting to see or hear or even read something from them again. Definitely not taking that for granted...

Last Saturday we went to see the Big Ben again - pictures will be up soon! I still can't believe I'm in London. Is that strange?

Ok, will update post later - now for more MATLAB! YEahh!

D:

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So I was thinking today - long legs are so useful for walking! Well, speed walking in particular. Short legs are very useful for walking too (as are feet - can't forget those) But I digress! For a short legged person to walk the same distance as a long legged person, he or she would have to either take very long strides or scuttle madly, or perhaps both. But when both do happen in conjunction, it just looks kind of dumb. Long legged people just look better doing so (except when they also overstep their... steps) Yes, way to state the obvious Lulu.

Good night,
from London :)